It would be interesting if Illinois downstaters began petitioning the congress for their own state separate from Cook county and Chicago...after all their interests and the interests of the urbanized northwest differ sharply. What would Chicago and the Dem’s in Peoria do if the whole of the downstaters went civil disobedient on them?
Chicago is the economic and financial engine powering the whole state. Its influence for good or ill cannot be escaped.
Cities do not just arbitrarily pop up out of the earth. Today they exist to drive the Division of Labor and thus productivity to the limits, something only numbers allow.
Conflicts of interest between rural and urban are superficial and not as important as the similarity of interests, if Chicago is suffering it is probably worse in the rest of the state and region.
An economy which isn’t mixed is more vulnerable than those dependent upon agriculture alone or industry alone.