• Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Illinois Review
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
No Result
View All Result
Illinois Review
No Result
View All Result
Home Illinois News

Reeder: Is it time to talk about Chicago and Downstate splitting up, too?

Illinois Review by Illinois Review
June 28, 2016
in Illinois News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
3
26
SHARES
434
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

View-Illinois-800x400

You might also like

Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

Trump’s Jobs Boom Skips Illinois—Thanks to Pritzker’s Tax Hikes

By Scott Reeder - 

SPRINGFIELD – As soon as the Brits voted to depart from European the Union, I began listening for the first rumblings of discontent in Illinois.

You know what I’m talking about: Should Chicago and the rest of the state part ways?

There are plenty of downstaters who would just as soon see Chicago depart the Land of Lincoln. And hey, I know more than a few Chicagoans who view Downstate as a parasite leaching away a great city’s life blood.

In case you are wondering, I’m using a political scientist definition of downstate – not a geographer’s. Downstate in a political sense is anyplace in Illinois that is not part of Chicago or its suburbs. Even northern Illinois communities like Rockford, Ottawa, Kankakee and Freeport are considered “downstate.“

The deep-seeded political animosity has been around for more than a century. And while some political commentators have written off downstate antipathy toward Chicago as being racial in nature, I disagree.

The political divide long predates the great migration of southern blacks to northern industrial cities such as Chicago. The divide is more cultural than racial.

When someone in Southern Illinois thinks of coal, it’s a source of jobs. For Chicagoans, it’s a source of pollution.

For many downstaters guns represent a source of recreation. For many Chicagoans they are viewed as a source of danger.

And let’s be honest. Chicago has a long history not only of political corruption but of flexing a unified political muscle.

Downstaters are many fine things. But politically united they are not.

For decades they have complained about getting whacked on their collective political noggins by their neighbors to the north. And downstate voters have come to resent the political successes Chicago lawmakers have scored in Springfield along with a certain arrogance that has accompanied it.

Folks in Springfield are still grumbling about Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn refusing to live in Springfield. They viewed it as a snub, which it was.

By the way, these intrastate rivalries are hardly unique to Illinois. When I was reporter in Nevada, the same animosity could be detected between Las Vegas and the rest of the state.

When I spoke to the Alaska Press Club a decade ago, reporters were complaining that their then unknown governor, Sarah Palin, was spending too much time in Anchorage and snubbing Juneau, the state capital.

For decades I’ve seen politicians stir up Illinois regional rivalries for their own political gain.

I’m disappointed Gov. Bruce Rauner, who I generally agree with on policy issues, is doing the same thing.

Rauner has been tromping around downstate telling audiences that he doesn’t want their hard-earned tax dollars to get taxed away and sent to the “Chicago Political Machine.”

I agree we should not pour more tax dollars into that sump hole without first getting reform. But exasperating the state’s long simmering cultural and geographic animosities isn’t going to make for a better state. And might I add, you don’t get any more “downstate” than me.

I grew on a hog farm near Galesburg. I drive a pickup. I like guns. And I’m uncomfortable in traffic.  

But that doesn’t mean I hate Chicago.

When Congress made Illinois a state in 1818, it was for better or worse. We’re stuck with each other. It may be a bad marriage, but it is a marriage nonetheless.

Rather than pointing fingers, we should be uniting behind solving the state’s staggering problems: a massive debt, a moribund economy and political culture that resists reform.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist. He works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area and can be reached at [email protected].

Related

Tags: BrexitChicagoIllinois Reviewruralurban
Share10Tweet7
Previous Post

Senator Kirk’s last four Tweets insult Republican voting blocs

Next Post

Benghazi Committee reveals findings in 800-page report

Illinois Review

Illinois Review

Founded in 2005, Illinois Review is the leading perspective and source of conservative news, opinion and information in Illinois. Follow Illinois Review on X at @IllinoisReview.

Recommended For You

Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

by Illinois Review
July 1, 2025
0
Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

By Illinois ReviewIn a shocking cost-cutting move Tuesday, Chicago’s AM560 The Answer terminated longtime morning host Amy Jacobson, as the struggling conservative station grapples with declining relevance –...

Read moreDetails

JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

by Illinois Review
June 30, 2025
0
JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

By Illinois ReviewIn one of the first nationwide hypothetical polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, Illinois Governor and billionaire JB Pritzker ranks at the bottom, receiving the...

Read moreDetails

Trump’s Jobs Boom Skips Illinois—Thanks to Pritzker’s Tax Hikes

by Thomas Mccullagh
June 26, 2025
0
Trump’s Jobs Boom Skips Illinois—Thanks to Pritzker’s Tax Hikes

Illinois is missing out on Trump’s U.S. manufacturing boom. While other states welcome new factories, Pritzker’s tax hikes and regulations keep businesses out—and force longtime employers to leave.

Read moreDetails

Opinion: We’ll Save You If We See You Burning

by Janelle Powell
June 21, 2025
0
Opinion: We’ll Save You If We See You Burning

By Janelle Powell, Opinion ContributorIn a dazzling display of bureaucratic brilliance, the City of Chicago has rolled out a new policy for the Chicago Fire Department that essentially...

Read moreDetails

Caught Off Guard: Pritzker Left Speechless on Women’s Restroom Question Amid Sanctuary City Testimony

by Illinois Review
June 12, 2025
0
Caught Off Guard: Pritzker Left Speechless on Women’s Restroom Question Amid Sanctuary City Testimony

By Illinois ReviewIllinois Gov. JB Pritzker testified Wednesday before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee alongside fellow sanctuary city governors – occasionally appearing visibly stunned and...

Read moreDetails
Next Post

Benghazi Committee reveals findings in 800-page report

Please login to join discussion

Best Dental Group

Related News

IL Freedom Caucus calls on Lurie Children’s Hospital to cease gender services for kids

October 27, 2022

Beckman: Is the Brigham Young University racial slur controversy another hoax?

October 27, 2022

Salvi polling shows closer race

October 27, 2022

Browse by Category

  • America First
  • Education
  • Faith & Family
  • Foreign Policy
  • Health Care
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • Opinion
  • Science
  • Second Amendment
  • TRENDING
  • US NEWS
  • US Politics
  • World News
Illinois Review

© 2024 llinois Review LLC Editor in Chief Mark Vargas Publisher Thomas McCullagh Chief Counsel Scott Kaspar

Navigate Site

  • Checkout
  • Home
  • Home – mobile
  • Login/Register
  • Login/Register
  • My account
  • My Account-
  • My Account- – mobile

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • Health Care
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • TRENDING
  • Education
  • Foreign Policy
  • Second Amendment
  • Faith & Family
  • Science
  • World News

© 2024 llinois Review LLC Editor in Chief Mark Vargas Publisher Thomas McCullagh Chief Counsel Scott Kaspar

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?