Trump is not alone in his geopolitical aspirations. Some of Illinois and Oregon also want changes

That President Donald Trump floats great ideas like reaction Panama channel and taking over GreenlandSome rural residents in Illinois and Oregon promote their geopolitical changes: they want to break away from their states and can join with Indiana and Idaho.

Proponants say they have more in common with their rural brothers on the state lines than with the urban and Portland, Oregon. And I argue that the cities run by the Democrats have so much influence in the state government that rural, republican voices are drowning.

In the last five years, voters from 33 counties in Illinois have been asked if they want to consider separation from Cook in Chicago to form a new state. Each time, a majority said yes.

Some politicians in the neighboring Indiana seem for idea. The Chamber of State representatives has recently advanced the legislation that would meet the counties in Illinois in Indiana fold. Such a transaction would mark the first major realization of the states, because Virginia from the West separated from Virginia to stay with the Union during the civil war. Despite a bit of local impulse, there are major obstacles to reject the US state lines, the states that give up counties should agree with it, which is a long blow. Congress should also approve.

The limits of the state have changed at least 50 times throughout the American history, according to the National Center for Interstate Compacts at the Council of State Governments. Many changes have been relatively minor, representing the change of rivers or restoring markers from long -term polls.

But the organizers of Illinois and Oregon hope to capitalize on the current political environment.

“With this polarization,” said Gh Merritt, president of the Pro-Breakay New Illinois group. “I do not know, man, they could only reach a tilting point.”

Why do some Illinois want to separate?

At least three organizations make efforts for a certain reconfiguration of the counties in Illinois to separate from Chicago and its closest suburbs.

Cook County contains about 40% of the state’s population, including most black, Asian and Hispanic residents and is known for its cultural treasures, a deep pension debt and a crime history. Democrats dominate the legislative districts in the Chicago area, while the Republicans represent most of the other parts of the state.

For Merritt, the problem is that, since the US Supreme Court has decided in 1964 that all legislative places should be allocated on the basis of the population, rather than in counties, Chicago has all the most important.

“What we experience in Illinois is very similar to what the founders of colonial times complained,” she said. “We have taxation without representation.”

The favored voting measures would allow the officials of each county to work with those from other counties to form a new state. But the proposals do not stop to declare independence.

The parliamentarians in Indiana responded to these votes advancing a draft law that could start discussions at the state level.

“Instead of deceiving ourselves, we believe that we have something to offer here,” said an interview, the president of the house in Indiana, a Republican who sponsored the measure, in an interview. He mentioned that his state has lower taxes and a higher economic growth than Illinois.

But it did not matter to Illinois that it is receptive: earlier this year, Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, called the Indian legislation “a waterfall” that would never mean anything.

What happens in Oregon?

For several years, residents in the rural, Republican oriented, East Oregon set up to separate from the counties dominated by Democrats from the western part of the Cascade Mountains. Their purpose is to join Idaho Red.

The larger Idaho movement has won unusual choices in 13 counties. The supporters held the town hall, selling hats and shirts and raising advertising panels with messages such as “release of the east of oregon”.

Idaho’s house adopted a measure two years ago, inviting Oregon to go into discussions. But similar measures remain buried in commissions in the Oregon Legislature, with reduced perspectives.

“At this moment, the state of Oregon holds us captive,” said Matt McCaw, the executive director of Greater Idaho.

State borders change but not often, or much

It has been over 150 years since whole counties have changed states. After Virginia retired from the US in 1861, the loyalists of the Union formed the new state of Western Virginia. The fate of two counties remained in dispute until the US Supreme Court decided in 1871 that it belonged to Western Virginia.

Since then, there have been numerous attempts failed by realization. The writer Norman Mailer applied for the mayor of New York in 1969, requesting that the city became the 51st state; Five counties in southern New Jersey voted to fall in 1980; California also resisted several proposals to divide the state. Earlier this year, a parliamentarian from Iowa proposed to buy nine counties in southern Minnesota.

Geographer Garrett Dash Nelson once proposed the redirection of all state lines to organize them in the subway areas. But he recognizes the challenges.

“I do not see too much evidence that there is a lot of real political will or interest in redirecting state lines,” said Nelson, president and chief curator of the Leventhal Center in the Boston Public Library. “It would be such a huge elevator.”

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The writer of Associated Press, Claire Rush, contributed to this report.