In considering how unimpressed I am by partisan politics, keep in mind where I’m sitting. Here in Chicago and, indeed, in Illinois if every single Republican were to vanish mysteriously from the face of the earth it would not improve the city’s or the state’s situation one iota. The mayor of Chicago hasn’t been impeded one inch from doing whatever he or she wished by Republican intransigence in my lifetime.
No, Chicago’s and Illinois’s problems are due to bad, incompetent, or corrupt governance and that can only be remedied by good governance. I’m in no position to speak with metaphysical certitude on the subject but I strongly suspect that’s the case in California’s cities that have declared bankruptcy, in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey as well.
I would go one step farther. I don’t think that bad, incompetent, or corrupt governance will be tamped down without changing the incentives.
Movement away from invested authority, the abuse of which lay always at the heart of corruption, is the only solution of which I can conceive.
More regional autonomy under a constitutional direct democracy.