Speaker
LaShawn Ford
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
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Quotes & moments
Chicago's massive population gives it a veto-proof Democratic supermajority in the state legislature, leaving rural conservative counties politically powerless. Rural Illinoisans don't just feel outvoted — they feel colonized by a city with a totally different history, economy, and culture.
G.H. Merritt didn't want to leave Illinois — she wanted Illinois to leave her alone. Standing in her father's house, she had a simple, powerful realization: high taxes and corrupt governance were pushing her out of her own home, and she refused to let that happen.
Rural Illinois counties receive more than $2 in state services for every $1 they pay in taxes — subsidized by Chicago. Secessionists say they'll build their own economic engines through lower taxes and fewer regulations, but the math of leaving that subsidy behind is stark.
Lorette Newlin has placed a non-binding separation referendum on the ballot in 33 Illinois counties and won every single one — some with 80%+ margins. When Madison County, with 250,000 people, voted yes, even skeptics started paying attention.
New Illinois isn't just a protest — it's a structured political operation. Organizers build support from the ground up: neighbors, township supervisors, sheriffs, then county boards, then state senators. The former Hancock County sheriff is in the group. They're using government buildings to plan a new government.
Secession is baked into the American identity — it's the founding act. History professor Dr. Kenneth Owen says New Illinois has both hallmarks of a serious movement: a distinct cultural identity and clear political stakes. The structural obstacles are huge, but the movement isn't irrational.
New Illinois loves to cite West Virginia as proof it can be done, but the Civil War context makes that comparison nearly meaningless. The only times states have split in US history involved extraordinary circumstances — the Missouri Compromise, the Confederacy — that simply don't map onto today.
Even if New Illinois never becomes a state, the threat of secession might force a renegotiation of the Illinois social contract. Dr. Kenneth Owen has seen this pattern before: when regular politics fail, the threat of leaving can force a conversation that actually moves things forward.
If the Illinois legislature refuses to allow separation, Virgil Strader gives it better than 50/50 odds of sparking armed conflict. He fantasizes about surrounding the state capitol in Springfield. He's not joking. And he knows people with heavy arsenals willing to join.
The conditions for political violence in the United States exist right now. Historian Dr. Kenneth Owen won't say it's likely, but he won't say it isn't either. Rebellions don't happen by plan — they happen when a spark lands in the wrong place.
Lorette Newlin doesn't spend time thinking about failure. A self-described farm girl, she plants seeds without knowing what storms or prices are coming. That's how she approaches Illinois separation — and she's already convinced 8 more county boards to put it on the midterm ballot.
The Constitution actually provides a mechanism to admit a new state — but it requires approval from both Congress and the existing state legislature. For New Illinois, that second requirement is the near-impossible catch: the very legislature they want to escape would have to let them go.
LaShawn Ford doesn't see racial animus as the dominant force in New Illinois, but he won't deny it's there — racial resentment toward Black Chicagoans sometimes surfaces as fury over 'wasted tax dollars.' The movement denies racism, but the subtext is hard to ignore.
Chicago Democrat LaShawn Ford is the only state legislator who took New Illinois seriously enough to speak at their conference — while still opposing secession. His diagnosis: the divide isn't Chicago vs. downstate, it's rich vs. poor. But his solution, a progressive wealth tax, is a non-starter for rural conservatives.
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