If conservatives in Illinois knew how to fight the information war, we’d be on the path to fixing the dysfunctional mess. Here is Diana Sroka Rickert writing at FEE.org:
One woman took a shot at fixing the system from the inside only to find that its not fixable.
walked into the Thompson Center on my first day, not knowing what to expect. In many ways, my new workplace was like any other large organization: big building, thousands of people and plenty of broken computers.
Except this building is dilapidated, many of the employees are political hires and the computers will never be repaired, ever.
And it’s all paid for by you, Illinois taxpayers.
“Welcome to state government,” said a new colleague, as we boarded the elevator for the 16th floor.
This summer I got to see how Illinois government works from the inside when I accepted a high-level position at the governor’s office.
A lot of people have asked why I took the role, considering I have spent the bulk of my career railing against the government.
It came down to this: If I declined the job, I’d watch Illinois’ problems go unfixed and wonder if I could have made a difference. Or, I could enter the nucleus of state government and attempt to change the system from within.
It’s all true
The experience was eye-opening, but after six weeks I decided to leave the position. It was a dysfunctional workplace in a flailing administration. The bad I saw far outweighed any good I could do.
But perhaps worst of all is that I learned early on that there would be no fixing the system from within, especially from my role; this is a state government that has been broken for decades. It is designed to reject improvement in every form, at every level.
It seemed that if I stuck around I would be giving my tacit approval to the status quo, so I quit.
Read more: FEE.org
Image credit: Thompson Center/Wikipedia Commons.
