Time To Drive — Out Of The Land Of Fakequity and Faux Reforms

CHICAGO — After a legislative session resulted in faux ethics "reform," election maps that favor incumbents over voters and a teachers union led push to create yet another government body primed for corruption — an elected school board in Chicago — one thing should be unmistakable:

Illinois' ruling class still ain't ready for real reform.

[COMMENTARY]

It's no wonder enough folks are running for the border that Illinois recently ranked the No. 3 "most-moved-out-of" state in America.

The massive federal corruption probe that sent former House Speaker Michael Madigan into early retirement hasn't had much effect on where America's most corrupt state conducts its business— behind closed doors, that is.

That's where the keepers of Madigan's legacy — leaders of a Democratic legislative super majority — gathered to draw election maps aimed at favoring incumbents over voters in hopes of retaining power in the highest taxed state in America.

When Illinoisans, particularly minority voters, hear Gov. J.B. Pritzker speak on ethics reform as if baby steps to root out corruption is a "compromise" they should remember that he's cutting deals with status-quo advocates in his own party — the lobbyists, bureaucrats and Madigan-loyalists who populate his inner circle, Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes, among them.

Pritzker's response to such criticism has been: "Madigan is gone" — which is like arguing that the Chicago mob shut down after the feds jailed Al Capone for tax evasion.

In the wake of a pandemic summer of civil unrest, they want Illinois voters to believe that the feds' corruption investigation applies to a bygone brand of Chicago Democrat.

We're supposed to view Pritzker — the same billionaire who donated $10 million to campaign funds controlled by Madigan before the former House speaker pushed the governor's legislative agenda of legalized weed, sports betting and a Chicago casino in a single year — as a reformer, of all things. What a crock.

It's infuriating, really, that in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and a nationwide civil unrest that there isn't a single politician in the Democratic Party willing to take on the billionaire with a first-term track record of raising taxes (at the gas pump), pushing racial "fakequity" and bending to the whim of taxpayer-funded labor unions, among other things.

It seems come election time, Illinoisans really will have two choices for governor — Pritzker, the politically ambitious loyalist to the corrupt Democratic status quo or various versions of a Trumpian Republican.

I've started to think maybe folks fleeing the highest-taxed state in America have the right idea.

So, last week, my trusty navigator and I loaded up the truck with a stowaway, Nelson the dog, and enough gear to last the summer intent on taking a look around America.

We decided it's time to drive — as our state's lame REO Speedwagon rip-off tourism slogan says.

We headed south on Interstate 57 to where Illinois ends, and the price of gasoline is about a buck-a-gallon cheaper than the Shell station in my neighborhood.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for, how far we'll go, or what we might find on the road ahead.

But since I feel pretty confident that when we return things will be much as we left them in America's most corrupt state, there's no better time to push the working remotely lifestyle to the limit for a while.

At our first stop, ducks splashed in a historic hotel's lobby fountain.

"What brings ya'll here?" the hotel clerk asked.

Getting out of Illinois for a while, I confessed.

"Who could blame, ya'll?" the clerk said with a grin.

Word gets around, I guess.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

More from Mark Konkol:

• Searching For Joy In Joliet Gave Me A Most Delightful Tummy Ache
• Absence of Color On Chicago City Hall Beat Comes Shining Through
• Pritzker Taps Fed Cash To Promote Pet COVID-19 Testing Operation
• CTU Leaders Continue Push To Leverage Pandemic For Political Gain
• Pritzker Administration Keeps Trying To Kill Coronavirus Test Co.