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Secession From Illinois? It's A Long Shot, But 6 Six Counties Voted Yes
Mish Talk ^ | 02/09/2025 | Mike Shedlock

Posted on 02/09/2025 6:23:29 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Long shot is a huge understatement, but the sentiment alone says what you need to know.

Secession From Illinois Is in the Air

Please consider Secession From Illinois Is in the Air

As states grow more politically polarized, the difference between good and bad governance is coming into sharper relief for voters. Enough people are noticing in Illinois that some counties want to secede from the Land of Lincoln and join a state that isn’t ruled by public unions and their political yes-men.

In November, to little national notice, seven Illinois counties voted to consider seceding, and now Indiana is rolling out the welcome mat. Voters in Iroquois, Calhoun, Clinton, Greene, Jersey, Madison and Perry counties approved a nonbinding ballot question on cutting ties with Illinois. The votes weren’t close. Six of the seven counties approved the advisory question by more than 70%. Iroquois County’s vote was some 72%, and Calhoun County’s near 76%.

The Illinois fiscal mess is so great that pressure will keep building to raise taxes again and again. Pension debt was $144 billion in 2024, up from $16 billion in 2000, according to Wirepoints and the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker called the secession idea a “stunt” and derided Indiana as a “low-wage state that doesn’t protect workers, a state that does not provide healthcare for people when they’re in need.” Illinois has a higher average income, but that’s a legacy of the state and city of Chicago’s economic glory days, which are long past.

Mr. Pritzker is essentially claiming the superiority of his welfare-state, public-union governance model. But fewer people are buying it. Since 2020, 33 Illinois counties have voted to consider breaking away from the state.

Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution says “no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

This makes secession a high bar, since it would require Springfield’s agreement and approval from Congress. But maybe progressive lawmakers would be happy to be rid of those red counties so they aren’t regularly embarrassed by their votes to secede. Illinois Republican Rep. Brad Halbrook has introduced legislation for Illinois’s participation in the boundary commission.

When he runs for President in 2028, perhaps Gov. Pritzker can explain to voters why so many of his citizens want to flee his brand of tax-and-spend governance.

Related Posts

March 15, 2024: Congratulations to NY, IL, LA, and CA for Losing the Most Population

On a percentage basis, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, and California lost the most population between 2020 and 2023.

March 13, 2024: Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit

If you live in Illinois, get the hell out before unions take every penny you have.

August 11, 2024: Net Zero Climate Policies Could Leave the Midwest in the Dark

A cascade of net zero policies put Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois on a collision course with disaster when solar and wind fail.

November 25, 2025: When Do Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City of Chicago Finally Implode?

Chicago slashed 2,103 public safety job but added 184 administrators. The budget deficit is nearly $1 billion.

On October 5, 2019 I wrote Escape Illinois: Get The Hell Out Now, We Are

And we did in July or 2020. Hello Utah, we love it here.

Meanwhile, Illinois has only gotten worse. It’s truly incredible how the state keeps electing worse and worse governors.

And the City of Chicago had a seemingly impossible task of finding a worse mayor than Lori Lightfoot, but Brandon Johnson is not only worse, but amazingly worse.

Since secession is nearly impossible, I suggest voting with your feet.


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: illinois; secession

1 posted on 02/09/2025 6:23:29 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: stars & stripes forever

Ping.


2 posted on 02/09/2025 6:25:05 PM PST by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I grew up in Hinsdale,IL, a Chicago suburb. My dad was a Republican and my mom, a Boston Irish Catholic, was a Dem. They argued, but I don’t think it went to this extreme.

BTW,I’m what was known as “a Daddy’s Girl”. He was very logical, she was far, far too emotional.


3 posted on 02/09/2025 6:32:30 PM PST by Veto! (Tump Is Superman)
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To: SeekAndFind

Let Chicago pay for Chicago, and it will disappear
Read once Chicago school paid for by 1/3 Chicago, 1/3 borrowed, 1/3 from rest of state


4 posted on 02/09/2025 6:35:56 PM PST by blitz128
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, a bunch of us Confederate ancestors will have to go up.there and blow their shit away.. We owe those god damned Illinois Yankees some good ones anyway...


5 posted on 02/09/2025 6:49:34 PM PST by LeoWindhorse
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To: Veto!


"I’m what was known as “a Daddy’s Girl”."


We don't have those anymore?
6 posted on 02/09/2025 7:17:36 PM PST by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I see a few counties from the old “Forgottonia” secession movement of the 1970s are there — west central Illinois between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. It seems they are even more forgotten than before, and have suffered even worse economic woes and population decline.


7 posted on 02/09/2025 8:00:40 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (God save the United States!)
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To: Jane Long

The home of Obama, Lincoln, Hillary, Pritzker, and Rahm Emanuel.


8 posted on 02/09/2025 8:14:43 PM PST by BrexitBen
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To: BrexitBen
The home of Obama, Lincoln, Hillary, Pritzker, and Rahm Emanuel.

Don’t forget Ronald Reagan.

9 posted on 02/09/2025 8:31:53 PM PST by dznutz
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To: SeekAndFind

And several counties in Oregon have voted to join Idaho. And as we all know, it’s not going to happen as the leftists have NO intention of letting their tax slaves go.


10 posted on 02/09/2025 8:35:33 PM PST by FrankRizzo890
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To: FrankRizzo890

A lot of eastern Washington counties would love to be part of Idaho.


11 posted on 02/09/2025 9:36:27 PM PST by BrexitBen
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To: BrexitBen

SW Washington would be happy to join as well.


12 posted on 02/09/2025 9:52:32 PM PST by FrankRizzo890
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To: SeekAndFind
West Virginia "seceded" from Virgivia long ago, but remained its identity with two new senators, all of its representatives, and got its own governor and state government; thus giving its overwhelmed residents a break with a new voice in reallocation of resources, stripping the big cities of their power over the rest of the plurality.

So, how about creating a West Illinois, breaking away from Cook County and its neighbors that comprise Chicago? And likewise for Western New York from the 9 milliom or more that comprise the five boroughs (counties) that overcome the will of the rest of the New Yorkers who hate domination by the City? And a North California as well, divided from LA/San Diego (Tijuana)?

It's time to even things out for the 'country people,' the Bible-pounder gun-packing home-schooling independents who are the moral backbone of our failing country. Give them a break, some kind of hope for a future apart from city-corruption, eh?

13 posted on 02/09/2025 10:28:54 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live; the joy of living: to teach. Fiat Lux!)
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To: SeekAndFind

CA conservative counties have tried the same and failed, too tough to do


14 posted on 02/10/2025 12:00:15 AM PST by TECTopcat
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To: imardmd1

This was only allowed due to the Civil War.


15 posted on 02/10/2025 1:11:31 PM PST by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: packrat35

Yep. Obviously there as a war within the state concurrent with a War Between the States. “Within” is what the topic is about; escaping from the grip of corruption by separation from it.


16 posted on 02/10/2025 3:37:02 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live; the joy of living: to teach. Fiat Lux!)
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