A recent trip to Model Illinois Government has only reconfirmed my belief that our democracy is not heading toward any relieve of its stagnation.

Let’s be straightforward here. I’m from the South Side of Chicago, a cesspool of political corruption, pandering and “favors.” I’ve grown up in this environment, benefiting from it and embracing it.

But as my maturity increased, so did my understanding that what I was so accustomed to was wrong, a leach on our democracy and alienating large portions of society.

The Illinois state government is little different than the political machine back home. The party leaders control the legislation, districting, elections, distribution of funds, issues and committees. In the end, debates, if there is luck enough to be any, come down to party bickering that only hides the political deal making going on in other rooms.

Last weekend I attended Model Illinois Government, a General Assembly and state Supreme Court simulation that attracts hundreds of students from numerous universities and community colleges throughout the state. All these people get together for several days and pretend to be legislators, lobbyists, budget analysts, judges, journalists and attorneys.

I, of course, went as a journalist. It was really a great experience, being in the state capitol building and pretending to cover different aspects of it. I highly recommend attending the event to everyone who wants to learn how to make a difference in this world.

However, the problem was that everyone really “simulated” how Illinois government works, right down to the parties controlling everything and cutting deals.

If someone wanted to run for a position, it essentially had to be OK’d by the party, third parties were kept out despite a small movement to develop one and actual debates meant nothing because legislators voted how the party wanted them to. And they couldn’t forget because they had lists of the bills with them that showed how the party wanted them to vote.

The same process goes on in the real state government, so I’ve heard. So MIG successfully mirrored our real government, even its evils.

Let’s put this into perspective. These are our future leaders. In fact, MIG’s motto is “Today’s students of government, tomorrow’s leaders.”

Now, I in no way mean to trash those who attended this event. They did an excellent job representing Eastern and brought home awards to prove it. And I strongly encourage more students to participate in this.

I also want to make it clear that the Eastern professor organizing our trip did an excellent job and continuously encouraged us to get the most out of the experience that we could.

My point is that these future politicians are being taught by MIG to play the system the way it is. To play the game. They are not being taught to change it or that its bad practices are even dangerous to our democracy.

Even MIG’s keynote speaker, Dick Lockhart, a legendary state lobbyist with more than 40 years of experience, admitted to participants the way the system is structured does not allow everyone’s voice to be heard.

When the system does not promote individual thought and serious discussion of the issues, it is not a successful democratic system. Representatives pledge their allegiance to the party, which fogs voters’ intentions by injecting partisan attitudes through the laundry list of issues played over and over again: gun control, abortion, death penalty….blah blah blah.

Governments do so much more important things than those issues. But the debate, controlled by the party, sticks to these, so they can easily divide the public into two and ensure they have a solid base of easily obtainable power.

Only one democrat is running for election in the two state districts that contain Charleston. Only one person is running for state senator and congressman.

This is because of the parties. The decision was made there. And this will continue unless some aspiring politician decides to make a difference. We need to teach our future leaders to make a difference, and not “play the game.”