People in Illinois looking to get active should form an
urban secession movement. I would love to see the ~23 counties of the
greater NY metro area (
see here), ~14 counties of
greater Chicagoland, and other top U.S. metros become independent states!
America would be a better place if more political decisions were made on a local level, and if you look at a typical
left-vs-right cartogram it's self-evident that densely populated urban areas and suburbs are very different politically from the rest of the country. They would be little islands of local socialism in an otherwise conservative country: by staying there you consent to being taxed. This is more of a liberal-vs-conservative idea, but it would be beneficial to libertarians as well.