When I consider the sad state of political and financial affairs of my natal state, I am reminded of the oft quoted lament by General Porfirio Díaz: "Poor Mexico!  So far from God, so close to the United States."  Only in the case of the "Land of Lincoln," we should substitute: "Poor Illinois!  So far from Abe, so close to Chicago."  In the true homeland of Abraham Lincoln, fully two thirds of the state's twelve million population reside in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area and as a result, the fiscally irresponsible and constitutionally nullifying liberal Democrats who govern that city and control the statehouse have all but bankrupted the entire state while legislating away the citizens' Second Amendment rights.

Except that rebellion is now brewing in the downstate area of this battered blue state, and it is one that steadfast frontier Republican president would most surely support.  The National Rifle Association's publication, American Rifleman, reports that 26 of the state's 102 counties have now passed "a 'gun sanctuary' measure with wording designed to symbolically prevent their staff and sheriff's department from enforcing state laws that violate the Second Amendment."  Southern Illinois is largely Republican, with only two counties, St. Clair (heavily black) and Jackson (Southern Illinois University) voting against Trump in 2016.  Incensed by the state Legislature's ongoing attacks against legal gun ownership, a steadily growing number of these southern counties are flipping the Chicago crowd on their gun-grabbing butts with a bit of jurisdictional judo so favored by liberals in many blue "sanctuary" states and municipalities.

What's most heartening is that not only are many other local governments in Illinois looking to emulate these counties declaring a defiant "no way!" to the gun-grabbing Chicago cult in the state legislature, but so are those in other nominally blue states such as Oregon and Washington.  A quick look at the 2016 presidential election by county should make conservative Americans feel reasonably hopeful that more such commonsense insurrections are simmering in all those red counties in ostensibly blue states where state government is controlled by deranged urban Democrats who dominate the statehouses, the governors' mansions, and even the high courts.

Just as the Founding Fathers had the wisdom to prevent the more densely populated states from dominating the more rural and agrarian, it is time for America's huge majority (2,600 voted for Trump of 3,100) red counties to overthrow the liberal tyranny of blue urban majorities by finding ways to adopt systems similar to the federal Electoral College, but based on counties within the states.  Had such electoral provisions been in place in all states in 2016, Trump could well have added several states such as New York, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington to his electoral victory.  Had that happened, Trump would have buried hapless Hillary in an Electoral College landslide, perhaps sparing us the constant carping of the deranged media about an illegitimate president.  Let us hope for more counties to begin defending the rights of their citizens against tyrannical state governments.