Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Our mission here
is, well, you know, it's pretty simple. We take
this huge stack of source material, all the articles
and data that you've shared with us. And we try
to distill it. We do. We try to pull out the
most compelling, the most counterintuitive, and
the most essential nuggets of knowledge. And
today we are deep diving into a place that's
often called the land of Lincoln. The prairie
state. Right. But it's... Fundamentally, I think
a perfect, complicated microcosm of the entire
American experience, Illinois. It really is an
ideal subject for a deep dive, mainly because
of those contradictions. I mean, Illinois represents
the whole American journey from ancient civilizations
to to industrial might, from agricultural wealth
all the way to global finance. So, yeah, we're
going to try and synthesize its complex geography,
its deep, often violent history. It's it's. powerful
economy. If largest, right. If largest GDP. Yeah.
And it's perpetually paradoxical political and
demographic makeup. And when you look at the
fundamentals, you realize pretty fast this isn't
just another state. This is an absolute powerhouse
sitting, you know, right in the middle of the
country. It is. We're talking about the sixth
largest population in the U .S. and maybe more
tellingly, that fifth largest gross domestic
product. Yeah. If Illinois were its own country,
it would be a top 20 economy in the world. Easy.
And that massive economic weight, it comes directly
from its position. It's the absolute linchpin
of the Midwest and the Great Lakes region. Geographically,
it's just perfectly placed. Perfectly. It borders
Lake Michigan, which is critical for shipping.
You've got Wisconsin to the north, and then its
western and southern boundaries are literally
defined by the country's greatest rivers. The
Mississippi. The mighty Mississippi to the west,
and then the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio
rivers down south. This pivotal location is really
the key to understand. understanding why everything
from rail to air travel routes through Illinois
today. Before we get into the, you know, the
really deep history, let's just quickly touch
on the name Illinois. Because I think everyone
who grew up there probably heard the same myth
about what it meant. Oh, yeah. But the real origin
our sources highlight is it's a fascinating linguistic
correction. It's a great example of how historical
misinterpretations just get cemented as fact.
The state name is, of course, the modern French
spelling for the Illinois Native Americans, the
Illinoic. For decades, American scholars claimed
the name meant man or men. That was the common
wisdom, yeah. They linked it to the word Irinoic.
They did, but that was a historical assumption.
Modern linguistic analysis has pretty much debunked
it. They've shown the actual word for man. in
the Miami, Illinois language is Irenuwa. So a
totally different word. A different word. And
the consensus now is way more interesting. The
name Illinois actually comes from the Miami,
Illinois verb Irenuwa. Okay, so what does Irenuwa
mean? It translates to he speaks the regular
way. Essentially, it was a way to distinguish
people who spoke the accepted or common dialect
from other groups. So it's more about a shared
language. Exactly. It's an identity marker. That
term passed through the Ojibwe language, becoming
Ilynwyk. And then the French just adopted that
and applied their common spelling for the we
sound, which is qua. So Illinois is really rooted
in a linguistic self -identification. Those who
speak our tongue. Not just a simple translation
of man. OK, let's unpack the really deep roots
of this state, because before the French, before
any American settlers, Illinois was home to this
massive, organized metropolis that I think completely
redefines our idea of pre -Columbian America.
It's absolutely crucial context. The area around
the Illinois River Valley has this staggering
temporal depth. You've got the coaster site,
for instance, which has archaeological evidence
of over 7000 years of continuous. human habitation.
7 ,000 years. Yeah. Continue. It shows incredible
adaptability. But the real headline grabber is
Cahokia Mounds near modern day Collinsville.
This is the largest regional chiefdom of the
pre -Columbian Mississippian culture. And when
we say Cahokia, we're talking about an actual
planned urban center, right? Not just a bunch
of villages. Oh, absolutely. The scale puts it
in the same league as like early European or
Mesopotamian cities. At its peak around 1050
to 1350 AD, Cahokia's population might have hit
15 ,000, maybe as high as 40 ,000 if you include
all its satellite towns. Which would make it
the largest city north of Mexico. By far. The
largest population center north of the massive
empires of central Mexico. It had over 100 mounds,
all arranged in a planned design that reflected
their cosmology and their political structure.
And the centerpiece, the Grand Plaza. The size
of that is almost impossible to grasp. It really
is. The Grand Plaza, their main public gathering
space, covered 50 acres. You mentioned 35 football
fields earlier. And that's the kind of visualization
you need to even get your head around the scope
of the public works here. This was a center for
ritual, for trade, for political assembly. And
towering over all of that was Monk's Mound. Give
us the dimensions on that because it sounds like
something from another continent. It's the largest
pre -Columbian earthwork in the Americas period.
Moncks Mound stands 100 feet high and covers
an astonishing 13 .8 acres at its base. All built
by hand. All by hand. They estimate it took 22
million cubic feet of earth, all moved in baskets
over generations. And when it was topped with
its massive ceremonial building, the peak would
have been 150 feet above the plaza. This wasn't
just a hill. It was a visible symbol of immense
political power. And that level of coordination
of specialized labor, it just speaks to a societal
complexity that we rarely attribute to this region's
ancient history. Precisely. The archaeology reveals
a highly stratified society. We find evidence
of specialized crafts, finely crafted tools,
elaborate ceramics and, you know, high status
materials like copper and shell engraving. These
weren't just farmers. They were urban specialists,
artisans and a powerful religious and military
elite. But then this huge urban center just vanishes
by the 15th century. What are the theories on
why civilization that powerful collapsed? It
was likely multifaceted. Environmental factors
definitely played a role. They would have needed
a ton of wood for construction and fuel, leading
to deforestation and resource depletion. But
there was more to it than that. Oh, yeah. Our
sources also point to a huge increase in social
stress. There's unsettling evidence from sites
in the central Illinois River Valley that suggest
high levels of intertribal warfare. One third
of all adult skeletons examined showed evidence
of violent injuries. One third. Wow. Yeah. That's
a clear indicator of severe social breakdown
or intense external conflict. So the remnants
of this complex society eventually broke down
into smaller groups, and those were the ones
the Europeans first encountered. Exactly. The
main group was the Illinois Confederation, or
the Illini, an alliance that numbered over 10
,000 people. And it was into this landscape that
the French arrived. Marquette and Joliet. Right.
Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and Louis
Joliet, a French -Canadian explorer. They were
the first to really map and document the Illinois
River region back in 1673. And this area became
known as the Illinois Country. part of New France.
It sounds like the French saw its strategic value
immediately. They absolutely did. They established
a presence very quickly, building Fort St. Louis
on top of Starved Rock in 1682, and they kept
posts all along the river systems. They used
this territory as a crucial link between their
holdings in Canada and their settlements down
the Mississippi in Louisiana. And this remained
French territory for nearly a century. Until
1763, when European politics intervened. The
British won the Seven Years' War, and the territory
east of the Mississippi was transferred over
to Great Britain. Which caused a bit of an exodus
among the French settlers. It did. A lot of the
French who had put down roots in the Illinois
country just refused to live under British rule.
So they packed up and migrated across the Mississippi
to Spanish -controlled territories, places like
St. Genevieve and St. Louis in modern -day Missouri.
And then during the Revolutionary War, the Americans
made their claim. Right. In 1778, George Rogers
Clark, leading a small force for Virginia, captured
key British posts, including Kaskaskia. So Virginia
claimed the whole territory. But after the war,
Virginia ceded its claim to the new U .S. government,
and the area just became part of the vast Northwest
Territory. OK, now we get to what our sources
call the most critical political maneuver in
Illinois history, the boundary shift of 1818,
right before statehood. A move of 51 miles sounds
so minor, but it changes absolutely everything.
It's the difference between Illinois being just
another agrarian landlocked state and becoming
the logistical backbone of the entire continent.
The original boundary set by the Northwest Ordinance
would have put Illinois' northern border on the
same latitude as the southern tip of Lake Michigan.
Meaning no lake access at all? None. It would
have completely excluded Illinois from the Great
Lakes. So who is the visionary behind this last
-minute land grab? That would be Nathaniel Pope,
the Illinois delegate to Congress. When Illinois
applied for statehood in 1818, Pope successfully
lobbied to amend the bill. He argued very forcefully
that the state needed to extend its border 51
miles north to 42 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude.
It was a purely strategic move. What did that
51 -mile extension... actually give them. It
was a massive geographical and economic win.
First, it added 8 ,500 square miles of valuable
land. Second, it secured the lead mining region
near Galena in the northwest. Third, it delivered
almost 50 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. And
maybe most importantly for the future, it fully
encompassed the Chicago River system. That was
the linchpin. Pope and others saw the future
in connecting the Great Lakes shipping network
to the Mississippi River Basin, and the key was
the proposed Illinois and Michigan Canal. Which
would be impossible without the Chicago River.
Exactly. Without incorporating the river, Illinois
would have no access point to start the canal
and no port city on Lake Michigan. Had Pope failed,
Chicago would almost certainly be part of Wisconsin
today, and Illinois would have been fundamentally
cut off from the dynamic trade flowing through
the Great Lakes. It was a singular moment of
foresight that basically guaranteed the state's
industrial destiny. So state it arrives in 1818,
built on that brilliant strategic land grab.
But the first few decades were spent just trying
to find a foothold. both geographically and politically.
The Capitol, for instance, it moved around a
lot. A lot of early uncertainty there. Kaskaskia
was the first Capitol, but it was quickly seen
as too remote, too exposed on the Mississippi.
They operated out of a small rented building.
Then they shifted to Vandalia. And they had to
build three different buildings there. Three
separate Capitol buildings between 1820 and 1837
because the state kept outgrowing them or, you
know, just deciding to move again. And the final
move, the one to Springfield. That seems to have
been driven by one particularly influential legislator.
It was. In 1837, the move to the more centrally
located Springfield was authorized, and it was
largely thanks to the lobbying of a powerful
group of legislators called the Long Nine, led
by a young, ambitious guy from Sangamon County
named Abraham Lincoln. We mentioned earlier that
Illinois was technically a free state under the
Northwest Ordinance. But the reality on the ground
was, well, it was a lot more complicated than
that, especially with so many early settlers
coming from the South. This is a really dark
and complex chapter of the state's history. While
the Northwest Ordinance banned slavery, that
ban was often just ignored for people who already
held slaves. When Illinois became a state in
1818, there were about 900 people legally held
as slaves, mostly in the southern counties along
the Ohio River. Which helps explain that little
Egypt nickname we'll get to. It does. So how
did the state manage to avoid fully legalizing
slavery given that southern influence? It took
a massive focused political effort. In 1824,
there was a major push to amend the state constitution
to fully legalize slavery. Governor Edward Coles,
who had actually freed his own inherited slaves
when he moved to Illinois from Virginia, led
a really successful campaign to block it. And
the voters rejected it. They did. The residents
voted against the extension of slavery, 6 ,640
to 4 ,972. It was a narrow, hard -fought victory
that preserved the state's constitutional status
as free. But that victory didn't exactly... extend
rights or welcoming conditions to free black
individuals. Far from it. The state had very
strict racial codes. The 1848 state constitution
even allowed for exclusionary laws. And in 1853,
the legislature passed a notorious law championed
by figures like John A. Logan, which prohibited
all African -Americans free or enslaved from
settling in the state. What happened if they
did? If they were caught residing in Illinois,
they could be fined, arrested, or even sold into
temporary servitude just to pay their fines.
It was an incredibly hostile environment that
really shows the stark contrast between legal
freedom and societal prejudice. And while they
were grappling with all these political and moral
issues, the pioneers were also facing just relentless
natural hardship. The stories of those early
winters are absolutely brutal. They really define
the frontier struggle. Two events stand out as
almost legendary markers of hardship. The winter
of the deep snow in 1830 -31, where a massive
sudden snow event blanketed the state and trapped
settlers, leading to widespread famine. And then
there was the winter of the sudden freeze. Yeah,
in 1836, temperatures dropped so fast that livestock
and even travelers were reportedly frozen solid
right where they stood. These winters became
the defining benchmarks of resilience for the
next century of settlers. And that nickname,
Little Egypt, which is still used for... Southern
Illinois, that comes from one of those periods
of natural disaster. It does. It goes back to
the biblical story of Joseph providing grain
during a famine. During some of the early, really
harsh crop failures in the 1820s and 30s, the
northern parts of the state suffered terribly.
But the South was okay. Southern Illinois, because
of its slightly warmer climate and proximity
to the rivers, often had better harvests. They
shipped their surplus grain north to feed the
starving population, and that's how the region
earned the nickname Little Egypt. It really highlights
the regional differences that have always been
there. The early 1830s also marked the final
organized confrontation with the indigenous people
who had occupied the land for millennia. That
would be the Black Hawk War of 1832. This contract
was basically the final armed attempt by Native
American tribes, mainly the Sauk and Fox led
by Chief Blackhawk, to resist displacement and
reclaim their ancestral lands east of the Mississippi.
Lands they had lost in a pretty questionable
treaty. A highly disputed 1804 treaty, yeah.
The U .S. militia, backed by allied tribes, decisively
defeated Blackhawk's forces. The remaining survivors
were forced west into Iowa. This war formally
ended significant Native American armed resistance
in northern Illinois and just cleared the path
for unchecked American settlement and the growth
of Chicago. And then there's this really bizarre
interruption in Illinois' growth story, Nauvoo.
It's so strange to think that at one point, this
religious utopia was briefly bigger than the
city that would become Chicago. It's one of those
amazing footnotes in history. Nauvoo, founded
by Joseph Smith and the Latter -day Saints in
1839 on the Mississippi, was an economic and
social phenomenon. Through sheer dedication and
organization, the city grew explosively. And
by 1844, it was the biggest city in the state.
By 1844, it had a population of around 12 ,000,
which, yes, temporarily surpassed Chicago. But
that reign was incredibly short. It collapsed
the same year its founder was killed. Joseph
Smith and his brother were murdered in 1844 in
nearby Carthage jail, which led to a succession
crisis and immense persecution. Under Brigham
Young's leadership, the vast majority of the
Saints began their historic migration west to
Utah, and Nauvoo just rapidly declined, leaving
the path wide open for Chicago's rise. And Chicago's
rise was, as we established, all about logistics.
How quickly did it go from a small port town
to the undisputed national hub? It was an exponential
rise, completely driven by strategic infrastructure.
The city was incorporated in 1833. But its real
takeoff started with the opening of the Illinois
and Michigan Canal in 1848. Fulfilling Nathaniel
Pope's vision. Exactly. 30 years later, the canal
connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi
River Basin, allowing goods to flow seamlessly
from the East Coast all the way down to New Orleans.
And then the railroads just magnified that effect
tenfold. Oh, completely. By the 1860s, Chicago
had established itself as the single most critical
railroad junction in North America. Every major
line went through it. This central nexus drove
industrial growth in meatpacking, lumber, green
processing. Yeah. It made Chicago the fastest
growing city in the world for a time. This industrial
mic then made Illinois strategically indispensable
during the Civil War. Absolutely indispensable.
The state contributed over 250 ,000 soldiers,
ranking fourth among all Union states. And crucially,
the southern geography played a huge role. The
city of Cairo, at the absolute southern tip where
the Ohio meets Mississippi, became the Union
Army's most important strategic supply base.
And generals like Grant used it as a launch pad.
Exactly. Grant used Cairo as a base of operations
to control the river systems, which were the
main invasion route into the Confederacy. As
all these factories and mines exploded across
the state, especially the coal fields in central
and southern Illinois, the state also become
a major stage for the American labor movement.
The growth came with intense friction. Illinois
is home to some of the most profound and often
violent episodes in American labor history. You
have the Haymarket Riot in 1886 in Chicago, which
became a massive setback for the eight hour day
movement. And then there was the Pullman Strike
a bit later. The Pullman strike of 1894 was arguably
even more significant because of the federal
intervention. It began when workers at the Pullman
Palace Car Company protested drastic wage cuts.
The strike paralyzed rail traffic across the
nation. And the federal government stepped in.
President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops
to break the strike. It resulted in violence
and it really cemented the federal government's
willingness to use force against organized labor.
These events solidified Illinois' identity as
a state where industrial power was constantly
being contested by the workers who built it.
And finally, the ultimate dramatic punctuation
mark on that 19th century boom. The Great Chicago
Fire of 1871. A truly catastrophic event. The
fire destroyed four square miles of the heart
of Chicago, just consuming all the wooden structures
built too quickly during that boom. But while
it was devastating, it wasn't an end. It was
a furious catalyst. A chance to rebuild. Exactly.
The city used the disaster to redesign, modernize,
and rebuild with steel and stone, which led directly
to the architectural golden age that defined
the modern Chicago skyline and its continued
growth. As we move into the 20th century, Illinois
continued to be this magnet for growth. It hit
12 .4 million people by the year 2000. And this
influx of people drove a huge transformation
in culture and infrastructure. The demographic
engine of the 20th century was really twofold.
First, you had the continued European immigration
that had characterized the 19th century German,
Polish, Irish populations filling the cities.
Second, and crucially, was the African -American
Great Migration. Which changed the face of Chicago.
It established a large politically and culturally
foundational black community centered overwhelmingly
in Chicago. And the state kept solidifying its
role as the ultimate national logistics center.
leveraging every physical advantage it had. That
geographic strategy that Nathaniel Pope initiated
came to full fruition in the mid -20th century.
The 1959 opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway,
coupled with the Illinois waterway system, means
Chicago has dual access to global shipping. To
the Atlantic and the Gulf. Exactly. It connects
to the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Lakes and
to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River
system. This duality makes the Port of Chicago
completely unique. and indispensable if the railroads
were the 19th century veins i guess air travel
became the 20th century arteries o 'hare international
airport is a monument to this o 'hare's dominance
is hard to overstate it was built for the jet
age and it quickly became the world's busiest
airport a title it held from 1962 all the way
to 1998 and it's still one of the busiest today
It is. Even if it's often surpassed by Atlanta
in passenger volume, it remains a top global
hub, a primary base for both United and American
Airlines, linking the central U .S. to every
major world market. What's so fascinating to
me is that while logistics defined its economic
muscle, Illinois also became ground zero for
the scientific revolution that defined the modern
world, the birth of the nuclear age. That whole
transformation began in secrecy and science.
In 1942, deep beneath the University of Chicago
Stagfield, the world's first artificial self
-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place.
Chicago Pile 1. That's the one. The conceptual
and physical star of the Manhattan Project and
the entire nuclear era. That moment permanently
cemented Illinois' role in global history. And
this wasn't just a historical footnote. It evolved
into a massive, ongoing industrial and research
complex. It created a direct lineage of scientific
infrastructure that's still here today. Argonne
National Laboratory, founded just west of the
city, activated the U .S.'s first experimental
nuclear power generating system in 1957. Later,
in Batavia, Fermilab opened its massive particle
accelerator. Which was the biggest in the world
for decades. For over 40 years, yeah. This shows
an immense, sustained state commitment to high
energy physics and atomic research. And on the
commercial side, Illinois is just... dominated
by nuclear power. It leads all states in total
nuclear capacity and generation. By 2007, nearly
half 48 percent of the state's total electricity
came from its 11 commercial nuclear reactors.
That is an astounding reliance. And it creates
other infrastructure needs. It does. The fact
that the Morris operation is the country's only
de facto long term high level radioactive waste
storage site just underlines how central Illinois
is to America's atomic present and future. Let's
pivot to the physical state itself. When people
think of Illinois, they just think flat. But
the topography actually has significant variation
that shapes its regional identity. Right. The
state is mostly within the interior plains, which
gives it that classic prairie look. But there
are crucial differences. In the extreme northwest,
you have the rugged, unglaciated terrain of the
Driftless area. Which is where the highest point
is. That's where Charles Mound, the state's highest
point, reaches 12 ,235 feet. And you contrast
that with the far south near Cairo, where the
confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers
creates the lowest elevation point at just 279
feet. That range of nearly 1 ,000 feet defines
microclimates and regional economies. And to
really understand the politics and the culture,
you have to understand the state's three distinct
geographical and cultural divisions. These three
divisions explain so much of the state's internal
tensions. First, you've got Northern Illinois
or Chicagoland. That's the city in the six surrounding
collar counties. And that's where most of the
people are. About 65 % of the state's population
lives there. It's a dense, diverse, cosmopolitan,
and wealthy economic engine. Second, central
Illinois, the heart of Illinois. This is your
historical agricultural prairie. A vast swath
of fertile land with medium -sized cities like
Peoria, the capital Springfield, and the academic
center of Champaign -Urbana. It's economically
tied to farming, manufacturing, and state government.
And finally, Southern Illinois, or Little Egypt.
This region has a really distinct identity. It
borders Missouri and Kentucky. It shares a warmer,
more humid, subtropical climate. And it features
more rugged terrain. It also contains the Metro
East area, which is geographically and economically
tied to St. Louis. It feels in many ways like
a gateway to the South. And the term downstate,
which you hear all the time, it seems to just
mean not Chicago, but it's more about political
identity than actual geography. That's exactly
it. While geographically downstate is south of
Chicago, culturally and politically, it refers
to everything outside the Chicagoland sphere
of influence. A staunchly Republican rural voter
in Rockford or DeKalb, which are geographically
northern, will often call themselves downstate
because they feel culturally and politically
aligned against the metropolitan machine of Chicago.
It's a term of political demarcation. The climate
itself also reflects that central position, making
it susceptible to some really devastating weather
extremes. Being so deep in the continent, Illinois
gets significant temperature swings, hot, humid
summers, and very cold winters. But the most
alarming factor is its vulnerability to tornadoes.
The state averages about 54 tornadoes a year.
And you can't talk about Illinois weather without
mentioning the tri -state tornado. Impossible.
The tri -state tornado of 1925 remains the deadliest
single tornado in U .S. history. It killed 695
people across three states, but 613 of those
deaths happened in Illinois alone. It left a
permanent scar on the memory of the southern
and central regions. Moving to the economic engine,
we know the state is agricultural, but the scale
is just incredible. Illinois is a global agricultural
superpower. It's consistently first or second
in soybean production and second in corn, yielding
over 1 .5 billion bushels of corn every year.
That vast output underpins the whole economy
of central Illinois. You see that heritage in
companies like John Deere, headquartered in Moline.
But it's also a major manufacturing state. The
fourth most productive manufacturing state, though
the economic shift towards high value services
centered in Chicago is undeniable. And those
high value services mean finance and logistics.
Right. Chicago is the global center for derivatives
trading, home to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
It started as a market for agricultural futures,
but now handles complex financial instruments
worldwide. Law, medicine, tech, logistics. It
all clusters heavily there, driving the vast
majority of the state's GDP. OK, let's dive into
what you call the most astonishing economic contradiction.
The coal paradox. Illinois is sitting on geological
wealth, but it imports energy. This is maybe
the most glaring paradox of all. Illinois has
an estimated 211 billion tons of bituminous coal.
According to the Illinois State Geological Survey,
the total heating value of this reserve is greater
than the estimated oil deposits in the entire
Arabian Peninsula. That's an incredible amount
of energy. It is one of the world's great energy
reserves. So why aren't they running their power
plants on that cheap local fuel? The chemical
composition is the problem. Illinois coal is
notoriously high in sulfur. And when you burn
high sulfur coal, it releases large amounts of
sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain and is
subject to really stringent federal environmental
regulations. And the power plants aren't equipped
for it. Many of the older Illinois power plants
lack the sophisticated equipment, the scrubbers,
needed to process those high sulfur coal emissions
efficiently or affordably. So it's actually cheaper
to ship coal across the country than to scrub
their own. Precisely. It became far more cost
effective for Illinois utilities to import millions
of tons of low sulfur coal from Wyoming's Powder
River Basin. So most of the coal produced in
Illinois is exported to other places that have
the right technology, while Illinois itself imports
cleaner coal. Which has devastated local mining
towns. Absolutely. The ones that relied on selling
their fuel domestically. And offsetting this
fossil fuel reality, Illinois has also become
a leader in biofuels, connecting back to that
corn dominance. It has. The state ranks third
in the US for ethanol production. The global
leader in corn ethanol, Archer Daniels Midland,
is headquartered in Illinois. The state has fully
embraced converting its agricultural product
into fuel, further diversifying its energy portfolio.
Okay, before we move on to politics, we should
touch on the tax environment, which is complex
and often characterized by high rates. Illinois
has a very difficult fiscal position. It relies
on a flat personal income tax and a relatively
high corporate tax. The sales tax is high, too.
Chicago has one of the highest combined rates
for a major US city. And on top of that, The
state has the second highest rate of real estate
tax in the entire country. Which is an immense
burden on property owners. It is, and it's the
tradeoff. Illinois has the third most interstate
mileage in the U .S. and the most primary interstates
passing through it, 13 of them. But it also ranks
high in miles of toll roads, which just shows
the high cost of maintaining that central hub
status. The attempted fix to broaden the tax
base, the graduated income tax proposal, failed
in 2020, which is the perfect segue to the state's
deep political divides. Let's turn our attention
to the people in the politics, because this is
where Illinois truly lives up to its billing
as a microcosm of America. It is, you could argue,
the Midwest's most diverse state. The demographics
reflect decades of both internal migration and
global immigration. And while the population
dips slightly in the 2020 census, that diversity
is foundational. It leads to stark cultural and
economic contrasts, often clustered geographically.
Cook County, home to Chicago, is the only majority
minority county in the state. Let's break down
the major groups, starting with the Hispanic
and Latino population. They're the largest minority
group in Illinois, about 19 .0 % of the state.
And a crucial detail here is their origin. Over
75 % of the Hispanic population is Mexican -American.
That gives Illinois the largest population of
Mexican descent outside of the western United
States. And they're concentrated mostly in Chicagoland.
Mostly, yes. Suburban Kane County, just west
of Cook, has the highest concentration at 33
.5%. But despite their numbers, this group faces
really severe economic challenges. They report
the lowest per capita income of any major group
in the state, around $28 ,541. Next, the Black
and African American population, the second largest
minority group. They make up about 13 .3 % of
the state. And while the majority live in Chicagoland,
they are heavily concentrated in specific areas,
largely due to historical and ongoing residential
segregation. Our sources highlighted a really
alarming statistic about that segregation. Yes.
The Chicago metropolitan area has the third highest
level of black -white residential segregation
among major metro areas in the entire country.
And this is a profound structural issue that
concentrates poverty and limits opportunities,
mostly on the south and west sides of Chicago
and in specific south suburbs. But the black
population is also historically important down
in southern Illinois, right? That's correct.
The Little Egypt region, especially Pulaski and
Alexander counties, has a significant black population
around 32 % in both counties. Economically, this
community carries the highest overall poverty
rate in the state at 23%. And moving to the fastest
growing demographic. Asian Americans. Making
up 7 .1 % of the population, the Asian -American
community is also the most affluent. They have
the highest per capita income of any group in
the state at $54 ,122. The largest groups are
Indian, Filipino, and Chinese. And what's interesting
is their geographical concentration. That's not
in the city. Right. The highest share is in suburban
Dupich County, where they represent almost 15
% of the population. And then finally a word
on the European ancestry that still forms the
numerical majority. German ancestry is the single
largest group at 15 .8%, spanning both northern
and southwestern Illinois. And Illinois has the
largest Polish -American population of any state,
over 750 ,000 residents, largely in Chicago.
We also see a significant Middle Eastern population,
including the largest Palestinian population
in the U .S., clustered in the southern Chicago
suburbs. When you look at those income figures,
the racial income inequality just leaps off the
page. Asian and white incomes are nearly double
that of black and Hispanic residents. And this
stark economic disparity, it feeds directly into
the political landscape, which has undergone
a radical transformation. It really has. For
decades, Illinois was a political bellwether.
It often voted for the national presidential
winner. Today, that's gone. Illinois is now a
solid, non -negotiable Democratic stronghold,
part of the national blue wall. So what exactly
drove that decisive shift from bellwether to
blue bastion? It really boils down to suburban
realignment. The Democratic dominance starts
with overwhelming votes from Cook County, of
course. But the real change came from the collar
counties, DuPage, Lake, Will, McHenry and Kane.
These wealthy, educated suburbs were historically
the bedrock of the Republican Party in Illinois.
And they just started shifting left. Why? As
the National Republican Party embraced more socially
conservative positions, these affluent, educated,
and increasingly diverse suburban voters started
prioritizing social issues. They broke away from
traditional fiscal conservatism, and that cemented
Democratic control statewide. This polarization
is the engine of the state's modern politics,
and it has completely isolated the heavily Republican
rural downstate region. You feel politically
powerless. Completely dominated by Chicago. Despite
that current polarization. Illinois still boasts
an impressive presidential pedigree. An incredibly
strong one. Three U .S. presidents were elected
while they were residents of Illinois. Abraham
Lincoln, obviously. Ulysses S. Grant, who was
living in Galena when he ran. And Barack Obama,
who launched his career in Chicago. Not to mention
Ronald Reagan was born there and Hillary Clinton
grew up there. Exactly. Illinois has had this
outsized role in supplying national leaders.
Okay, now we have to get to the state's most
infamous calling card. It's pervasive and persistent
history of political corruption. It's almost
a character in itself in Illinois. It is deeply
embedded, almost cyclical. The state has an unparalleled
record of high -profile corruption that has led
to a profound public cynicism about government.
We've seen some incredible examples, even very
recently. The successive convictions of two governors
are the most staggering examples. Absolutely
unprecedented. You had former Governor George
Ryan, a Republican convicted of racketeering
and fraud. Then his Democratic successor, Rod
Blagojevich, was impeached, removed from office
and convicted on federal corruption charges for,
among other things, trying to sell Barack Obama's
vacant Senate seat. Two consecutive governors.
Convicted and imprisoned. It just it speaks to
a structural problem. And the cycle isn't new.
It has deep historical roots. It's a pattern
that goes back over a century. We can talk about
Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, Governor Otto Kerner
Jr., State Auditor Orville Hodge all serve time
for financial crimes. Historically, the machine
politics, particularly in Chicago, relied on
patronage and pay to play schemes that just became
institutionalized. And that culture is often
maintained by powerful political dynasties. Dynasties
thrive in Illinois. Let's pivot to infrastructure,
starting with education, which is another area
defined by really stark inequity. The issue here
is fundamentally structural, and it's tied directly
to those high property tax rates we discussed.
Illinois schools are funded primarily by local
property taxes, not by substantial equalized
state contributions. And this creates enormous
wealth disparities between districts. What does
that disparity look like on the ground? In affluent
suburban districts, like in DuPage County, the
high property values generate massive tax revenue,
so per -pupil spending soars. They get superior
facilities, resources, teachers. Conversely,
inner -city or deeply rural, downstate districts
with lower property values struggle immensely.
They have significantly lower per -pupil spending.
One study called Illinois, despite its wealth,
the stingiest in its support for education. In
attempts to fix it, have failed. They've been
stymied by opposition from the wealthy communities
who fear their local control and funding advantages
would be diluted. This persistent inequity is
one of the state's biggest long term challenges.
And yet, despite that structural challenge, Illinois
is home to some truly world class academic institutions.
The list is formidable. The University of Chicago
and Northwestern University are consistently
ranked among the world's elite. The University
of Illinois Urbana -Champaign is celebrated globally,
especially for its engineering school. So you
have this paradox of systemic funding inequity
coexisting with these beacons of elite academic
excellence. And finally, let's circle back to
its lifeblood transportation. Illinois is still
the undisputed national crossroads. As we noted,
third most interstate mileage, the most primary
interstates running through it. Crucially, Chapago
is the nation's largest and most active freight
rail hub, where all six Class I railroads meet.
This dense network air, rail, water, road ensures
that Illinois continues to be the essential logistics
engine driving the national economy. And tying
that strong metropolitan identity together is
the state's rich sports culture. Sports provide
this unifying identity for Chicagoland that projects
nationally. You've got two MLB teams, the Cubs
and the White Sox, the Bears, the Blackhawks,
and of course the iconic Chicago Bulls, whose
Michael Jordan era dominance really shaped global
basketball culture. And beyond the pros, you
have 13 NCAA Division I programs with the Fight
Ingelini and Northwestern Wildcats in the Big
Ten. We've traveled from the ancient power of
Cahokia through that strategic engineering of
the the 51 -mile border shift that created Chicago,
into the heart of American industrialization,
the birth of the nuclear age, and the complexities
of modern demographics. And what emerges from
this deep dive is a state that's really defined
by these magnificent contradictions, the city
of contrasts. It has the massive economic output
of the fifth largest GDP, driven by immense diversity
and high -value services, yet at the same time,
it's hampered by a structural political culture
of persistent corruption, severe residential
segregation. and deep unresolved internal political
and fiscal turmoil. And that leads us directly
to the final thought we want to leave you with.
one that really encapsulates the state's central
paradox. We establish that the state's wealth
and political power are concentrated overwhelmingly
in the Chicagoland area, a region that relies
on high value services and votes overwhelmingly
Democratic. Right. And conversely, the vast geographic
expanse downstate Illinois remains heavily Republican
and economically tied more to agriculture and
these distressed resource sectors like high sulfur
coal mining. This profound geographic and economic
chasm really came to a head in 2020 when the
state firmly rejected the proposed constitutional
amendment to implement a graduated income tax.
The arguments for it were about funding schools
and easing the burden on the poor. And the arguments
against centered on a deep distrust of corrupt
Springfield politicians and fear among high earners
that they'd be taxed right out of the state.
So given that the measure failed, preserving
the status quo of high property taxes and inequitable
school funding, what does this ongoing fiscal
polarization reveal about the deep, unresolved
cultural and economic identity crisis in the
land of Lincoln? And what will be the catalyst
that forces a political solution to reconcile
the needs of its cosmopolitan core with those
of its It's a question that really defines the
state's future.