Nobody wants to stay in Illinois! Everybody's leaving!!!

You've got to pronounce the title of this post with a long O and exaggerated George Wendt accent to get the full flavor of the midwest rightwing loon.

For years we've heard conservatives excitedly pronounce that people are fleeing Illinois!  (At that Youtube video link is a video from 4 years ago claiming the same thing). You will also hear this statement made about California.  It's been a wish fulfillment mantra for rightwingers to prove Real Americans hate liberal policies and Democratic control of government.

Of course, it's also an untruth.  But, Republicans will never bypass an opportunity to undermine Democracy in their pursuit of destroying the United States and establishing a Neo Confederate Fundamentalist Fascist Ethno-State.

So, while Traitor Trump and his Regime were scheming on overthrowing the Nation in a spectacular Coup d'etat they were also engaged in old school Stalinesque undercounting.

The 2020 U.S. Census undercounted the population of Illinois by almost 2%.

The U.S. Census Bureau originally found that Illinois lost about 18,000 people over the prior decade, which was the first time numbers showed Illinois’ overall population had declined since it joined the union in 1818. But after a follow-up survey— something that happens after each once-a-decade head count of the U.S. population — it discovered the state’s population figures had likely been undercounted. 

Anecdotally, driving around the collar counties rightwing hate talk radio proclaims everyone's fleeing Illinois whilst I see brand new construction of mini McMansion starting at a half million.  

Now, Illinois still loses that Congressional seat, even though we shouldn't have, and even if rightwingers were to address the undercounting, well they'd no doubt simply declare since it's done under President Biden's administration it's fake news.

In 2018, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning released there 3 year update for the future of the Northeast Illinois Region called ON TO 2050.  Looking over the executive summary pdf this would certainly be classified by CRT by the 2024 DeSantis Administration.