Happy New Year to you all.
In about 2007 or 2008 I became aware of a blog - Con Con Illinois 2010 - which had a brief run back then proposing some ideals for how to reform Illinois state gov't. In 2008 - which was the one where Barack Obama won the Presidency - one item on the ballot at the time was a State Constitutional convention or what was popularly know as the con-con which would commence in 2010.
Of course to my disappointment at the time it got voted down. Opponents of a con-com seemed to often cite concerns over the possibility that a con-con would threaten the pension language in the 1970 IL constitution. Perhaps there wasn't great political support for one anyway.
We're at the point now where a con-con is again on the ballot, which would be in 2008. The political scene is vastly different in 2028 though I don't know how this will play out. I'd probably have to buy a subscription to the Capitol Fax newsletter to be able to tell you all for sure. However, what I can say definitely is that the players of the political scene in Illinois has largely changed significantly and who knows if they could effectively scuttle any possible enthusiasm for a 2030 con-con.
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However, what was on that Con Con 2010 blog is something worth exploring as we talk about an Illinois Republic.
I think many points that were shared on the Con Con 2010 blog's first post applies to what I hope to do in this thought exercise. Although I may not necessarily use the term democracy, I do prefer the term republic. I doubt any politico in this state would use the word republic, however, the idea is to go for a vision.
- Imagine elections where there is more than one name on the ballot.
- Imagine there being many names on the ballot. Imagine there being more than two political parties to choose from.
- Imagine there being three, four or five viable political parties to choose from.
- Imagine that voting for a "third party" doesn't mean "spoiling" an election or having to pick from the lesser of two evils.
- Imagine every election in all parts of the state being competitive, not just in a few swing districts.
- Imagine there not being any gerrymandering.
- Imagine the winning party actually having to enact the platform they ran on.
- Imagine money not playing such a big role in elections.
It's unknown how many of these planks could be achieved, however, some of them I think are somewhat easy to implement.
I would like the idea of having multiple viable political parties and they could get elected at least to the state legislature. And thus the Republicans and Democrats would have to compete a lot better than they do now.
Competitive elections everywhere throughout the state would be another great idea no one party should dominate in one region or another.
What this blog had discussed during it's brief run was how to compose the IL General Assembly, the state's legislative branch. That is something that I do intent to explore using some of the posts on that blog. Though I want to throw in some of my own ideas.
Another thing under consideration is local governance. For example, I came of the understanding that cities in this state don't have charters. What kind of city charter could I write for the city of Chicago? How is Chicago governed without one or what would be the purpose of a charter.
I look forward to going through this exercise.
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