The irony of decrying conservative ignorance in the same comment as suggesting a "solution" based on conservative ignorance of the difference between a household or business and a government 🤦
Grew up around central Illinois, the whole area blames Chicago for their problems while the true issue is all the auto manufacturing left in the 70-80s. If they formed their own state they'd be worse off than Mississippi. But hey, they'd get to keep Danville and East St. Louis, two of the worst cities in America.
If they formed their own state they'd be worse off than Mississippi
Hey now, no need for exaggeration! It takes decades if not centuries of extreme corruption and bigotry to get THAT awful. You don't get a title fight as your first bout.
The only way you can do that is if Congress signs off on it.
Every other state has an incentive not to permit that, because then that state gets two senators of its own.
Congress has only ever permitted a state to split a single time -- West Virginia from Virginia, during the American Civil War, where West Virginia was willing to side with the Union, and contained some militarily-important rail and water infrastructure.
Texas also negotiated the right to have the ability to split into five states if it wanted down the line at the time it joined, but I recall reading that it was considered to no longer be an exerciseable option after the American Civil War.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but 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.[4]
EDIT2: Correction; Kentucky was also split from Virginia and Maine from Massachusetts. The Kentucky split happened before the US Constitution was ratified. Maine was part of the Missouri Compromise, to keep slave and free states in balance when Missouri joined as a slave state.
Creating new states from territory that nominally belonged to an existing state (in the sense of claiming everything west of their established territory) but was actually unexplored frontier was a little different than carving a chunk out of an existing state with fully-established borders after the fact.
TN also almost split like VA in the civil war. They were the last to secede (doing so to protest Lincoln calling for state militia members to quell the rebellion). East TN (Knoxville region) was unionist whereas West TN (Memphis region) was rebellious. TN also supplied the most fighters to the union of any secessionist state.
Quebec's first referendum on Independence was like that, the government was asking for approval to negotiate the terms in order to hold a second referendum where people would know in advance how it would be handled, aka the reverse of how Brexit was handled (even though their referendum didn't make it an obligation to do it).
The States Attorney already said its nothing more than a symbolic gesture. They legally cannot secede from the state. I have the severe misfortune of living in one of these counties. Everything around here is dead or dying because of decades of total, uncontested Republican rule. Whole towns here are nearly abandoned. And yet, they STILL bitch about how the Democrats, who have no control here, have ruined everything.
I saw that on the ballot in Madison County and thought there would be no way it would pass. It passed in all 7 counties that had the proposal in the ballot.
There’s no way the counties down here can be financially solvent without the northern half of the state.
People keep telling me not to worry. After seeing so many things that “would never happen” come to pass it is difficult to not take this seriously. Both mine and my wife’s retirement is solely based on our Illinois teacher pensions. I’m guessing those dissolve if this comes to pass? Do I move preemptively?
I wouldn't think your state pension goes away since that's based on your employment with the state, not what state you currently reside in. Now any financial support those counties were getting from the state would go away.
Not the solution you think it is. It would be the rural Republican areas of California that would split off, meaning the magats would have an even stronger lock on the senate.
Well, the electoral college (assuming we can vote again) would be based on population. And based on by very small amount of research:
Blue Illinois: ~17-18 electoral votes
Red Illinois: ~3-4 electoral votes
The last time Illinois voted red was in 1988 for Bush.
Here is an estimate of the outcome from ChatGPT, if you’re into such things.
If Illinois were split into “Red Illinois” and “Blue Illinois,” it would likely be a boon for the Democratic side (the “Blues”) rather than the Republicans (the “Reds”). Here’s why:
1. Electoral Vote Distribution:
• Blue Illinois (urban and suburban areas, especially around Chicago) would retain most of the population and, therefore, the majority of Illinois’ current electoral votes.
• Red Illinois (primarily rural areas) would receive only a small number of electoral votes due to its lower population.
2. National Electoral Impact:
• Currently, Illinois’ electoral votes (all 21) reliably go to the Democratic candidate. If split, Blue Illinois would continue to deliver its substantial number of votes to Democrats.
• Red Illinois, with its few electoral votes, would be a small gain for Republicans but would not offset the significant Democratic advantage from Blue Illinois.
3. Practical Outcome:
• While Republicans might gain a small number of electoral votes from Red Illinois, Democrats would retain the larger share. This would effectively increase the Democratic advantage, as they would gain electoral votes from a smaller but reliable “blue” state and leave Republicans with only a minor gain.
In summary, a split would likely strengthen the Democratic position overall, giving them a solidly blue state (Blue Illinois) with substantial electoral power while only slightly increasing the Republican count.
Last I checked, Iroquois county had 9000 yes votes to secede. Good luck with that massive tax revenue base. Chicagoland's 10 million plus residents will be happy to stop sending them money.
If the southern states are finally ejected, then whatever is left will be 10x stronger.
It was after reconstruction, when the south wasn't able to give all their votes to their favorite sons in the senate that we finally started to develop as a country with things like the intercontinental railroad.
Ejecting the south would lead to a new golden age for the US.
It's because of the infinite southern corruption hole that we put NASA in Alabama, where it basically collapsed into failure, and the superconducting-supercollider's 50B dollars were swallowed by Texas because they wouldn't let it be built in Illinois, then their contractors ate the rest of the money.
Russia should be against a balkanization, the South was the only thing holding the US back, without them we're unstoppable.
Honestly, if NYC voted to secede from the state, it would probably be pretty popular. Albany doesn't even pretend to view us as anything more than a piggy bank at this point.