Chumps.

That’s what Illinois voters are. We got a healthy reminder of that today when we were treated to the latest outrage about an old, old story—the sweet deal that some insiders wrangled from state government to build a fancy hotel in Springfield. The deal was that if the hotel didn’t make a profit, the insiders wouldn’t have to pay off a state loan they got to help build the palace.

Naturally, the hotel failed, the state ended up taking it over and the investors got away without having to pay back almost all of the dough. That’s a $15.5 million loan, from us taxpayers.

Chumps. Patsies. Suckers. That’s what we are. This deal has been haunting us since it was worked out in 1985 at the highest levels in state government. It raised “serious questions” at the time, but we voters, blockheads that we are, still go about electing the same kinds politicians. In the latest episode, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias released a report that the insiders “improperly diverted” nearly $2 million from the loan for personal use, including such things as buying caramel apples.

Caramel apples. That should go down in Illinois political lore alongside “shoe box,” the latter the legacy of former Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell, who had so much cash stuffed in his pockets that he didn’t know what to do with it, so he stashed the $800,000 in small bills in shoeboxes, discovered hidden in his closet after he died. That was almost four decades ago, and we’re still electing the same kind of characters.

Chumps. We constantly get hit upside the head with the kind of shenanigans detailed in the trial of Blagojevich insider Tony Resko. But will we elect someone different the next time? Unlikely. We must like setting up special deals for special friends.

It makes me think. Why don’t voters get upset with paying for these insider deals? Why don’t they understand that corruption takes money out of their pockets? How did they ever get convinced that it takes a “little honest graft” to “make government work”?

Maybe it’s this: Chicagoans, Cook Countians, Illinoisians only get riled if they think the other guy has it better than them. That the other guy is getting ahead because of “connections,” rather than doing what us regular guys have to do. The other guy who got city employees to build a backyard swimming pool. The other guy who has the fancy city car parked out front. The other guy who can get his trees trimmed when the folks down the block have dead branches falling on their jalopy. Envy. Jealousy. A deadly sin. Now we’re talking in terms that everyone can understand.

So, Illinois voters who have wanted to start their own business, but they can’t because they don’t have the start-up capital, need to ask themselves: Where can I get a nice juicy loan that I don’t pay back if my new business fails? Why did former Republican Gov. Jim Thompson and former Democratic state Treasurer Jerome Cosentino work out the pricey hotel loan deal for former state Transportation Sec. William Cellini, the ultimate state insider who plays both sides of the political fence. How do those guys rate? Where’s mine?

Chumps. If we can get voters to look at corruption this way, maybe we can get them riled up, just enough. Enough to rid ourselves of the likes of Gov. Rod Blagojevich or Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. See, Illinois voters are not necessarily upset over things that are illegal. Kathleen Vyborny, a lawyer representing Cellini in the hotel deal all the way back to the 1980s, argues that there was nothing illegal about diverting the $2 million for personal stuff and calling it a legitimate hotel expense. The terms of the loan agreement permit it, she said.

But that misses the point that needs to be made with Illinois voters. It may not be illegal, but it’s giving big shots breaks that you and I don’t get. Just how long will we let the likes of Blagojevich, Stroger and all the rest play us for chumps? The answer: as long as we let them.