Drop the political ads and save Illinois
Bruce Rauner and J. B. Pritzker, the two candidates for governor of Illinois, are both very wealthy, and together they have spent more than $ 130 million of their personal wealth to earn the right to run against each other this fall.
In what could be the most expensive gubernatorial race in U. S. history, they likely will spend two or three times that much attacking each other in political advertisements. There is, however, an alternative.
University of Chicago economics professor Allen Sanderson recently suggested that the two candidates pledge not to run any television ads this fall and instead each donate $ 100 million to charity. The idea has a lot of merit.
Two hundred million dollars could pay for preschool programs for about 50,000 kids. It could give 20,000 low- income high school graduates a $ 10,000 scholarship to college. It could help start 1,000 businesses in low- income communities. It could give countless area charities a needed lift.
It could also change the toxic nature of politics where exaggeration and outright deceit have replaced civil discourse and where collaboration across party lines is seen as some kind of betrayal rather than as the necessary compromise for governing.
Faith in government has never been lower in Illinois. It’s one reason Illinois is losing more population than any other state in the country. People are rightly frustrated by our broken government in Springfield. An onslaught of negative ads will only make it worse.
Meanwhile, our problems go unaddressed. Gun violence plagues inner- city communities. Our schools remain criminally inequitable with some districts spending as little as $ 8,000 per pupil while other districts spend closer to $ 30,000.
Our roads and bridges are long overdue for repairs. Decades of disinvestment in affordable housing have put working families and seniors at risk of homelessness.
The broken criminal justice system has incarcerated countless young black and Hispanic men, denying them any real chance of a legal job. For most of them, the life of crime is their only way to feed themselves and their families.
The opioid crisis, like the crack epidemic in the 1990s, is going untreated. And even in today’s relatively strong economy, wages remain flat and families must work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Rauner and Pritzker are asking the people of Illinois for their votes. But if they want to show us they can responsibly spend taxpayer money, they can start by showing us that they can responsibly spend their own money — not to tout their own resumes, but to help solve problems.
It does not speak well for democracy that you need to be a billionaire to succeed in politics today. Across history, the best political leaders on both sides of the spectrum have won advancing ideas in open forums, instead of hiding behind their wealth.
Today, it’s different. Today, politicians win by tearing down their opponents and blaming them for problems they didn’t create. They win by making promises that they know they can’t keep, and by ignoring facts and evidence to sow confusion and doubt.
Maybe Rauner and Pritzker can instead stage a series of debates across the state like Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas did 160 years ago. They could model respectful dialogue instead of calling each other names.
Don’t tell us what’s wrong with the other guy. Tell us why you’re the best person to lead Illinois. Tell us how you will reverse the outmigration of people.
Tell us how you will fix the unfair tax system that has been so favorable to wealthy people like you while hurting the little guy. Tell us what you will do for factory towns across the state that have seen good jobs disappear because the companies you’ve both invested in and made lots of money from have shipped those jobs overseas.
Tell us what you will do for the people of Chicago’s South and West sides living with violence every day. Tell us what you will do to make education more equitable.
Tell us what you will do to make sure everyone in Illinois has health care and can afford a home. Tell us what you will do to reform Illinois’ pension system in order to protect both taxpayers and retirees.
And please spare us all the negative ads. They don’t tell us anything about your agenda. But they do tell us something about your character.