•October 2, 2019•
By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

In response to a recent essay of mine about our state’s parlous load of debt and unfunded obligations, a reader asked: Why so much red ink? The answer lies in an unsavory stew of human nature; our state’s political tradition of careerist politicians, and the political self-admonition of “not on my watch.”
When I was a graduate student decades ago, I recall a seminar with political psychologist Harold Lasswell. He said that people who enter political life have, generally speaking, an even stronger desire than folks in other pursuits to be approved of, liked. It’s human nature, of course, but accentuated.
Second, in Illinois somewhat more than in most states, many people who enter politics do so with the objective of making political life their primary pursuit. This has been true in both Chicago politics as well as in hard-scrabble, deep southern Illinois. From Houses Speaker Mike Madigan and Alderman Ed Burke in Chicago to former Secretary of State Paul Powell in tiny Vienna, elected officials have gotten rich through politics.
So, elected officials have a strong need to do things for voters (spend money on them) and not do things to them (increase taxes to pay for the spending). Read More