Chicago is so far gone even the Tea Party doesn't want to step into the mess. Denying a recent report by the Huffington Post, the leaders of the movement possibly show their average ages by declaring that "Chico Is Not The Man".
In a way, that might be a sign that things haven't yet gotten so bad in the Windy City, compared to places like California and New Jersey. But they're definitely on the way, with more than a billion dollars of unfunded pension liabilities. I guess things have to completely fall apart before people get the message and demand change. And even then, there will be more than a few taking to the streets to demand the status quo.
But for now, Chicago is still living in that old New Deal style American dream world where you just do things because its the right thing to do, dammit, and everything will eventually work out because, you know, its the economics of prosperity where you give the citizens what they want, because a happy citizenry is a productive one.
Of course, eventually the bill comes due, and then-and only then-the citizenry takes to the streets, and then the parties realize they have to retool their political apparatus to accommodate the outrage, only nothing really changes. The Democrats blame the rich and demand higher taxes, while the Republicans blame the entitlements and demand spending cuts. Or, if they are in a really blue area, like Chicago, they just demand marginal spending cuts and well, a slightly lower increase in taxes. That seems to be the case with Gery Chico, and the Tea Party isn't going along.
Most of the time, the people go along with the Republicans in these cases, until they start to feel the pinch, then they vote for the Democrats. Its hard to fault the Republicans in Chicago for wanting to cut their losses at the polls, and its impossible to blame the Tea Party for not wanting to play the game. The only people you can really blame, in the long term, is the people. Well, and maybe Andrew Jackson. Let's face it, most people are pretty fucking simple minded at best, and downright stupid at worse, so when you give the masses the right to vote, and give the political parties the power to control the electoral process, you can expect nothing if not skulduggery.
