Illinois — A Home Divided

Opening.

I’m writing this piece because I’m tired of trying to explain to people that Illinois is not a blue state. Not really at least. Not in the traditional sense that the national media loves to portray. Anyone who has lived in this state knows the reality is far more nuanced; its politics far more splintered; and its people far more divided.

I remember talking to someone from the coast once, telling them I’m from Illinois. They asked if that was in Chicago.

I laughed and said it was, figuring that was a conversation that wasn’t going to lead anywhere quick. Looking back, I deeply regret it. I should have corrected them — if only because comments like those, which I know Illinoisans everywhere have heard, lead to this idea that Illinois is some progressive, urban paradise.

It isn’t.

History.

A little historical data can tell us a lot of useful things about this idea.

It can tell us that even now, in 2020, over 75% of the physical land in Illinois — over 27 million acres — is farmland, while a vast majority of the state is occupied by small towns of less than 5,000 people.

History can tell us that since 1921, Illinois has elected 18 Governors. Nine Republicans, nine Democrats. An even split. And to address the shameful shadow that always hovers over Illinois politics, six of those governors were charged with crimes during their tenure; three Republicans, three Democrats. Another, if corrupt, even split.

In the past century, Illinois has cast its Electoral votes for 26 Presidents — 15 Democrats, 11 Republicans. Not the landslide one might think when they imagine Illinois politics.

It can also tell us that since 1921, we’ve had 24 US Senators: 13 Democrats, 11 Republicans. We’ve elected 280 people to the US House of Representatives: 141 Democrats, 139 Republicans.

Again, we see parity.

So tell me where in these numbers is the overwhelming opinion of Illinois as a ‘blue state’ validated?

Is it because our current Illinois House of Representatives has 118 members; 74 Democrats, 44 Republicans and the Illinois Senate has 58 members: 40 Democrats, 18 Republicans? Maybe.

Recent history of the Illinois General Assembly.

But our history over the past century is far more checkered with partisan shifts including multiple, sustained periods of Republican ‘trifecta’ control.

You’d be hard pressed to find any one period of political control in Illinois that isn’t matched shortly after by another, opposing period.

Leadership and Politics.

Illinois has spent the last century flapping in the political winds. This is a state that voted twice for Richard Nixon; twice for Ronald Reagan, and for George H.W. Bush. Hell, it even voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter. One of the US Senate office buildings is named after a Republican Illinois Senator in Everett Dirksen. We have Abraham Lincoln on our license plates and over 2,500,000 of us voted for Donald Trump in 2020. But Illinois can also call itself home to President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Adlai Stevenson — liberal icons.

It’s vital, then, that we look at the names outside the regular media. Yes, we have Oprah and Obama. We have Mayor Lightfoot and the Daley family and other Democratic leaders.

But we are also a shelter to some of the staunchest and most radical conservative voices in America. People like Joe Walsh, a former Congressman from the Chicago suburbs who was one of the integral members of the Tea Party movement. Charlie Kirk, founder of the controversial Turning Point USA, is from the suburbs as well. We’re the home of Congresswoman Mary Miller who recently used a quotation from Adolf Hitler in reference to progressives. We have people like Arthur Jones, a tried-and-true Nazi, who for decades has received political votes from Illinoisans culminating in his 2018 Congressional bid as a Republican where he garnered over 57,000 votes. This despite the fact that Illinois is a leader in Holocaust education and curriculum across all grade levels.

I personally live right down the street from the Heartland Institute, a hyper-conservative think tank dedicated to the denial of climate science.

I do not, for a moment, believe that Illinois is a ‘blue state.’ My experiences in this state and with its people do not back that up. Drive down to Cairo and tell me this is a blue state full of liberals.

I also do not believe Illinois to be a ‘red state’ for exactly the same reasons. Walk a block in Chicago and ask folks their opinion of Donald Trump.

I think it’s a mistake for any candidate, local or national, to assume Illinois is a safe-bet for the Democratic Party. I think pundits often massively overlook the political nuances involved in Illinois and what actually makes up its population. I think this state is a unique blend of rural conservative and concrete jungle liberal.

We are a divided state — one that if the political winds had shifted only a little differently, would be extraordinarily similar to Georgia, which recently made a name for itself as a major political turning point in the 2020 elections. Georgia, like Illinois, is a mostly rural state with a singular large urban center. Agriculture makes up a huge percentage of its production and its history is littered with political leaders from both political parties. We have far more in common with a state like Georgia than we do with any of our neighbors in the midwest.

The largest city in Iowa, Des Moines, is barely larger than Rockford. Milwaukee isn’t even 1/4 the population of Chicago. Don’t even get me started on Indiana.

We are not at all far off swing-state status and our future election outcomes are far from certain. The reality is that Illinois’ problems will continue to impact both our state and national elections in profound ways and our duality will show itself time and time again in radical and sometimes contradictory fashion:

• We elected Bruce Rauner, a conservative Republican governor while Barack Obama, an Illinois native, was still in the Oval Office.
• Our state institutions are battered by decades of bipartisan corruption.
• We’ve yet to establish a firm recovery plan from the Rauner-led budget crisis that careened the entire state to near bankruptcy despite having a Democratic trifecta in Springfield for a number of years.
• We are 50th in financial stability, 41st in overall strength of economy, 22nd in healthcare and 19th in education.

This all despite being the 5th largest economy by GDP in the U.S. and the 22nd largest independent economy in the world, even when compared to other countries.

Few other states know such a duality, and fewer still understand the complex political dynamics involved when 5.15 of your 12.67 million citizens live within a single county of 1,600 square miles.

If Illinois is any one thing, it’s confusing.

There are Three E’s in Illinois.

So what are we to do? How do we bridge this gap and bring Illinoisans together despite our vast cultural differences?

First, we must reestablish Illinois as a credible, stable actor on the national stage. For too long this state has been side-eyed with an earned reputation as corrupt and fiscally untenable.

We can begin this by reinvesting our varied unique resources into our state’s infrastructure and social future. By tackling the three E’s — Education, Energy, and Economy — we can drive success from both rural conservatives who fear Springfield has left them behind and urban progressives who want Illinois to be a leader in social reform.

Education.

Illinois’ schools lag behind our peers due to a concerted and intentional lack of investment from our General Assembly. They’ve consistently robbed our students blind to pay off debts we shouldn’t have accrued or projects we shouldn’t have taken on.

Fifty percent of Illinois public school kids now qualify for free and reduced price lunch, up from 37 percent in 2001. If we don’t invest in our children’s education, we aren’t investing in our own futures or the future sustainability of the state. We are also ensuring another generation of poverty which diminishes recovery and limits growth. A proper education with proper funding will also substantially improve downstream issues like crime rates, mental health stability, and community engagement.

In 2020, Illinois did not cut its education budget, despite a serious push from some to do so. This, while a victory, does not mean Illinois cannot do more to support its teachers, elevate its institutions, and ensure the long-term stability of our infrastructure. We must also address the growing “brain drain” of Illinois students fleeing the state for higher education due to soaring tuition costs within higher education. Colleges cost too much, provide too little, and do so at a significant cost in government subsidies. Students are saddled with a lifetime of debt for a degree that simply does not warrant the expense.

Energy.

Second, Illinois must continue to be a leader in renewable energy and nuclear energy production. Illinois is the 5th largest energy consumer in the country; however, we are the single largest producer of nuclear energy. Illinois accounts for over 12% of the country’s nuclear energy production.

It is vital for Illinois to continue on this path of sustainable energy production while also finding ways to cut our energy needs substantially. It’s not worth much effort to save the state if the rest of the world is on fire with climate crises.

If Illinois ever hopes to be a stable, budget-positive economy, it must do so with a keen eye on its production and means of energy consumption. Nuclear power has served Illinois well, but when the overwhelming majority of our energy is used not in our homes but in our businesses and industries, we must begin to find ways to limit risk and increase productivity. Nuclear is our cornerstone. We must expand our capabilities to other such avenues like wind, solar, and hydroelectric production to limit our reliance on natural gas and coal. This ensures a safe, sustainable future without disrupting our vital industrial core.

Economy.

Simply put, Illinois is in dire need of serious financial reform. The failure of the 2020 Fair Tax initiative was a major blow to the viability of a quick recovery from the 2015–2017 budget crisis.

We are deeply leveraged against growing pensions and not bringing in enough taxes to cover running costs. As of January 2020, Illinois’ S&P credit rating is still BBB-, only one notch above junk status.

The economy of Illinois is fundamentally unbalanced due to this leverage. We can neither abandon our pension liability nor somehow wipe away decades of financial mismanagement in Springfield.

The short answer is we must bring in more revenue. Illinois is home to some 347,000 millionaires — that’s over 7% of the state population. The median income of Illinoisans however is just over $65,000. Meanwhile, over 1.7 million Illinoisans live in poverty, of which over 780,000 of them in extreme poverty.

Illinois has a pretty substantial gap between the haves and the have-nots while also being one of only 11 states with a mandated ‘flat tax’ of 4.95% regardless of income or wealth.

Certainly Illinois must look at ways to cut costs without impacting essential state services. Between a raging pandemic and growing social needs, Illinois must make measured cuts that will actually make a difference to the bottom line.

However, such cuts will hardly be enough to address the over $137 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. “Spend less” is simply not an option in a situation like this. The state must pay that money somehow and we must continue to cover our necessary running costs. Increasing tax revenue, while taking a knife to budget waste, is the best way to address this worsening obligation.

On top of all this, Illinois is bleeding people at a quickening pace. Too many Illinoisans are giving up on the state and its fundamentally unfair tax system. That every Illinoisan is forced to foot the bill no matter their ability or income leads to a system that allows the wealthy to stockpile while the poor fight for scraps.

In a just system, people should pay according to their ability against their wages, not according to their wages no matter their ability.

We must make strides to again attempt to abolish this tax system and replace it with a progressive system that scales to the economy it services. This is the first and most vital step in positioning Illinois for the future. Not only does it address fundamental economic woes at the state level like helping to pay down on the state’s debt, but it also will provide huge long-term positive impacts across all three of the major points of focus.

More money and investment naturally leads to better schools and better industrial infrastructure. These things lead to better long-term individual outcomes and thus a more sustainable and less flighty population.

We simply must try again to reform and restructure our tax system.

Final Thoughts.

The Illinois I know is full of fair, just people who thrive in the duality of being one of the world’s largest farming economies and the bustling home of some the most aggressive industry leaders. That agricultural giants like John Deere and DeKalb corn, industrial leaders like Caterpillar, and advanced technology stalwarts like Boeing and FermiLab can all coexist in one beautiful, messy land is a testament to the hardworking, friendly ideals of this state. We aren’t any one thing — and that is our unique strength.

Illinois is built on a fundamental compromise — the towering glimmering skyline of Chicago, powered by labour of those with broad shoulders and fed by the vast privileges of the state’s prairie regions. It is a beautiful compromise that brings a warmth to my heart that I’ve never found anywhere else in America.

This state is special. Its people are special. But it needs reform and its people need help. The first step to any solution is acknowledging the problem. And the problem is that Illinois deserves better than what we’ve been given. We don’t need “business-focused” billionaires like Bruce Rauner whose entire political worldview is kept in his wallet nor career politicians with deep-seeded familial conflicts like Michael Madigan. We deserve better than either of these extremes.

Call your state legislators; or, more importantly, educate yourself and others about who all your state legislators are and inform them of what you’ve learned. Share in the future of this state instead of relegating it to negativity and greed. Be a part of a positive solution.

Make a pact to commit to Illinois. This state is home to so, so very much good.

It’s time we let the world know about it.