-By Warner Todd Huston
Now, usually when a state is dissed it is dissed by people from outside the state. With the usual hometown bravado, and all, denizens of a state used to stick up for their own in the face of criticism. But a new poll finds that Illinois is so bad, even people that live there say it sucks.
America is a land of polls, for sure, but this poll is a particularly telling one. The Gallup polling firm asked residents of the 50 states (or the 57 states if you are our clueless President) what they thought about their own home states. It turns out that Montanans really love their state. But Illinois and Rhode Island? Not so much.
The top five states where residents are happy to live right where they are living are Montana (77% of residents love the place), Alaska (also 77%), Utah (70%), Wyoming (69%), and Texas (68%).
Further, if you ask everyone the general question of where the best place to live is, Texas wins, followed by Alaska then Hawaii.
But it’s those that are unhappy with where they live that interests us most.
Rhode Island comes out as the worst of the worst according to her own citizens. Only a dismal 18% think Rhode Island is a great place to live. Amusingly, when this country was founded, Rhode Island had such a bad reputation, many people called the place Rogues Island.
But in a close second to last place is our state, the Land of Lincoln, the home of one of the most dangerous cities in the nation, “Chiraq,” the jewel of the Midwest, the once great State of Illinois.
Only 19% of Illinois residents think that Illinois is a great place to live.
Why is Illinois so much in the dumps? Gallup says,
Illinois has the unfortunate distinction of being the state with the highest percentage of residents who say it is the worst possible place to live. One in four Illinois residents (25%) say the state is the worst place to live, followed by 17% each in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Throughout its history, Illinois has been rocked by high-profile scandals, investigations, and resignations from Chicago to Springfield and elsewhere throughout the state. Such scandals may explain why Illinois residents have the least trust in their state government across all 50 states. Additionally, they are among the most resentful about the amount they pay in state taxes. These factors may contribute to an overall low morale for the state’s residents.
One should be surprised it is as many as 19% still like their state! As far as most citizens are concerned, the happiest Illinoisan is the one that moved out of state.
For a little more context, here are just a few more of the “low lights” of Illinois’ standing among the states:
- Illinois Worst in Midwest for Private Sector Job Creation
- Illinois One of the Worst GDP Growth in Entire Midwest
- Illinois Ranks as ‘Worst’ For Small Businesses
- Of the Fifty, Illinoisans Have Least Trust in the State Government
- Poll: Even People in Illinois Say Illinois Worst State to Live In
- Illinois has the most underfunded pensions in the country and faces a deficit growth of $17 million per day.
- The state also has the worst funded teachers pensions in the country.
- Illinois was identified as one of the worst states in the union for its oppressive, jobs-killing lawsuit climate
- Illinois had more home foreclosures than almost every other state.
- Illinois ranks as the 49th worst debtor state in the nation.
- Illinois was ranked the 48th worst state for business.
- Illinois ranked 48th for unemployment making it among the worst five states for joblessness.
- Its government also has one of the worst rankings for state transparency and accountability in the nation, too.
- As to big city stats, Chicago tops the nation with the highest unemployment rate.
- Illinois has the worst credit rating
- Illinois Tops Nation in Growth of Food Stamp Recipients
- Mercatus: Illinois ranks at the bottom of the most free states
- Illinois Ranks as One of Worst States for Losing Citizens
So, we have to hand it to the Illinois Democrats and their weak sisters in the feckless Illinois Republican Party. You folks have done a great job utterly destroying one of the greatest states in the union. Great job to the dictator Michael Madigan, the hapless and ignorant Pat Quinn and the rest of the worthless set running the state into the ground.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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