Illinois is not my idea of a progressive paradise! From a marketing viewpoint, the disadvantage that liberals have over ideologues is that the ideas are spectral. People believe in many different models involving all sorts of different compromises. Not so easy to describe a message that involves trade-offs. Illinois is just one set of them. California is another and it is functioning reasonably successfully.
From what I have heard, one of the biggest issues in Illinois over the years has been corruption. No political model functions efficiently without a basic culture of integrity.
I don't think progressivism is intrinsically dishonest, any more than conservatism is. Every system has to try to limit the opportunity for dishonesty and to punish it wherever it occurs.
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