Where did I suggest that everything was wonderful in Chicago or Illinois in general? My contention is it has very little to do with democratic ideology. It's an economic problem in a major city and state. Politicizing economic problems is lazy.

May I suggest you read the actual article you posted. Below is from the article.

It could also be argued that state-by-state costs of living should be taken into account when considering which states are poorest. Unfortunately, the federal government doesn't do its cost of living calculations by state.
However, the Census Bureau's "supplemental poverty measure" tries to adjust for some of the geographical cost differences. So while, under the bureau's standard poverty measure nine of the 10 poorest states are Red, the latest Supplemental Poverty Measure changes that ranking significantly.
Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee fall from the list, replaced by California (the poorest), Nevada, Florida, New York, and Hawaii, which were all Blue states in the 2012 race. (Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas -- all Red states -- make the list either way.

http://www.latimes.com/...tion-2017-story.html

Well looky what I found this morning.

Also, it's not politicizing economic problems to state certain facts like there hasn't been a Republican mayor in Chicago since before Prohibition, Cook County Board is a Democratic cesspool, and Michael Madigan has been the speaker of the house for what 32 of the last 34 years? Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago have been run (into the ground) by Democrats since time immemorial, and the Democrats won't own it. See for example the pussying out you just did.

Did you vote for Rauner? If not you're part of the problem.

We have a 310 billion dollar net debt. OTPP is run by the teachers and they pay into it. At least partially. I know something about Detroit because I live close to the border. I wonder how much of the problem is the same party being in power for 30+ years vs it being the democrat party? But Detroit is getting better up until about 4 years ago it was incredibly bad.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Well, Detroit really couldn't get any worse, so ...

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

That is true

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Nice of you to conveniently leave off your list the 26 consecutive years of republican gubernatorial control from 1977 to 2003.

And who controlled the legislature you twat?

You may want to do a little more research.

Don't need to pretty sure Lee Daniels was speaker for two years and you have yet to comment on Cook County, Chicago, or Rauner.

So Rauner now matters but those prior governors didn't matter. Got it. This fucking hack of an argument is what I hate about this board and you are one of the worst offenders. Illinois pension problems didn't begin recently. I didn't defend democrats anywhere in this thread. I'm just not letting republicans off the hook. If republicans want more people to give a shit about fiscal conservatism, they could start by not embracing bigots and populism. Maybe Illinois should be embracing immigration in an effort to grow its economy and increase its population tax base. All solutions are economic, not political.