Globalization Milwaukee

I've been reading a lot of promising news about Milwaukee. The region would seem to be ready to leverage globalization to its own benefit. But parochial geographies are creating a drag, as this editorial indicates:

The Midwest now is fragmented into political entities that spend too much time competing with each other and too little time cooperating. And even when they're not competing, political realities make cooperation difficult. Milwaukee and Chicago should be natural partners, bound by a lake and the I-94 corridor. But they're tied politically to Madison and Springfield, leaving - as the Journal Sentinel's John Schmid has noted - a gaping coordination vacuum within the Chicago-Milwaukee metroplex.

How can we get around these "political realities" and take aim at the opportunities? Ask India.