[bee_rider]

I don’t really know how we’d get there, but the US would be better structured as an EU of regions, IMO. The states are too small, but we’ve got regions with definite noticeable cultural differences (Northeast vs Southeast, etc etc). These areas have more similar values than the country as a whole, and are big enough to handle 99% of their issues. Like, we should not have done the ACA, just merged all the various already successful Northeastern healthcare systems. Then the South could decide to copy it if they wanted, after they saw it working. Or not. What can you do? Trying to impose it seems to have drastically backfired.

Since these regional governments would be picked from the inside, hopefully there wouldn’t be as much of a contrarian reflex to oppose everything they do.

[yardie]

The EU is moving in the opposite direction and trying to become more cohesive. The politicians and technocrats see the Euro as hamstrung with weak fiscal policies.

[bee_rider]

There’s probably a nice spot in the middle somewhere. The EU has smart folks, I hope they are studying exactly what went wrong over here.

[johnnyanmac]

I think pissing off technocrats is a good thing, given what they are doing with "the free market" in the US.

[brianwawok]

Kind of, but also it’s complicated. For example, Chicago is blue blue blue. 500 miles in every direction outside the city is red. 90% of the area of Illinois is red. But Chicago is so much more massive that Illinois votes blue in the end. So what the heck region is Chicago in, and the red part of IL?

I don’t know CA well but I know it’s blue with very deep red pockets.

[tptacek]

50 miles out of Chicago will get you to red counties.

[brianwawok]

Right so what region is that? There aren’t really shared cultural values across 50 miles.

[michaeldh]

Except for nearly all of them, sure.