Saturday, June 13, 2009 11:24 PM CDT
OUR VIEW: Ambitions of young politicians not all far-fetched
By the JG/T-C
editorial@jg-tc.com
Aaron Hacker and Paul Stewart may have to get accustomed to hearing stifled snickers in most places they go.
They’d be naive to think many voters won’t chuckle at them due to their campaigns for state-level office. Hacker, 25, a Westfield native, is an Eastern Illinois University graduate student who just announced his candidacy for governor of Illinois in 2010. Stewart, also 25, is a Charleston resident who’s now making a bid for lieutenant governor as Hacker’s running mate, although governors and lieutenant governors in this state appear on separate ballots in primaries.
Stewart, a Charleston native, attended EIU for a few years but did not graduate and plays with a band for a living. Neither young man has prior political experience.
Positioning themselves under the banner of the Republican Party, the pair surely are aware they hold themselves up for possible ridicule with their unlikely campaigns. Surely no adult American would truly believe that these 20-something men, with virtually no political connections and apparently little or no financial backing as of yet, have any chance of winning statewide election and heading to the Capitol to spar with the General Assembly.
But why not?
Most Americans are disgusted with modern-day politics. Party divisions often polarize the United States, and some might argue that things only get worse every year. Politicians are stereotyped — and, probably most often fairly so — as breaking promises, spending too much taxpayer money, getting little or nothing done on behalf of the people, and milking their positions in government for their own benefit.
So if these are the traits for which American politics are best known, how could a couple of ambitious Illinoisans not achieve at least the level of apparent disdain that most politicians elicit?
Sure, they’re young. But Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he signed the Declaration of Independence; John Hancock was 39. That’s not so terribly far afield from the mid to late 20s. And, as Hacker and Stewart argue, their lack of a long political background means, “If we’re elected the only people we’ll be beholden to are the people of Illinois.”
Hacker said his disillusionment with the political atmosphere in Springfield is his motivation for seeking the governor’s job. Most people complain about the sad state of politics in Illinois — and, often, the nation in general — but few ever try to take real action to affect change.
Hacker and Stewart have to have 5,000 or more valid voter signatures each by Oct. 26 to get on the 2010 ballot. They may or may not make that goal, and they likely won’t get much farther in their efforts.
They may not have any chance at all of winning. They may never get the opportunity to be part of the system that’s become so corrupt that even members of both major political parties can agree on that fact. They may continue to be disillusioned with Illinois government and American politics, and they, like many of their fellow citizens, may always have a laundry list of complaints about the system.
But at least they’re doing something about it. The ambitions of this pair to make a difference, however unlikely to be fully successful, still are a breath of fresh air.
— JG/T-C Editorial Board
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Harry Potter wrote on Jun 15, 2009 7:05 AM: