The United Regions of America: COVID19 and the New American Order

The United Regions of America: Will the COVID-19 Pandemic Usher in a New American Order?

(Local Voice of the Citizen: No.003 – April 22, 2020)

As a community organizer in Chicago, Jac, over the years has worked with government and politicians at the local, state, and federal level. Dan has, in working within and for the insurance industry for much of his career, dealt with regulators at the state level. Well before the pandemic, Jac and Dan came to believe two things as a result of decades of working to solve problems while interacting with our governments. First, that the only way the American government really seems to add value to the lives of its citizens is at the local or the federal level. The rest of government in-between the local and federal was duplication, redundant, inefficient (ineffective even) and a waste of money because when you get right down to it, the geography of the fifty states is no longer a useful nor relevant construct. It is an outdated structure which made sense when it took days to get even a message from one city to another and the need for numerous centralized governments including a top executive e.g. governors was the right approach. Now, not so much. Why are there 50 Departments of Corrections? 50 State Police Departments? 50 Unemployment Agencies? 50 Economic Development Departments? How about 50 Departments of Motor Vehicles? Heck, why 50 State Legislatures? These government agencies and more all do the absolutely identical work to each other, so what’s the point anymore?

And this brings us to the second thing Jac and Dan believe: to achieve relevance, the states need to band together in regions. The states have become irrelevant on their own in that the boundaries of the states do not matter. State lines are, after all, human creations having no meaning beyond that which we give to them. The coronavirus certainly doesn’t care about how one state acts from another, and neither do many other things.

Where does this take us? Well, depending on how you slice and dice it, the US can be mapped easily into ten regions based on where our nation’s population lives, geography, and some shared sense of identity – West Coast (including Alaska and Hawaii), Great Plain States, Appalachia, New England, Southwest, Midwest, Atlantic Coast, Central States, Deep South, and of course, the already correctly named Lone Star State (region) of Texas! Or if you are sports minded, you can use how the NFL or NBA regionalizes America. Governor Pritzker of Illinois, for example, has just announced a coalition of Midwest states – with Democratic and Republic governors - to address the COVID-19 crisis, navigate through it and on to the other side. In reality, states are already banding together regionally because it works. There are groupings of states for the protection of Lake Michigan water, to combat drug trafficking, and to promote tourism. Further, the federal government has longed grouped the states by regions too, such as SAMHSA and HUD that both have the states divided into regions for purposes of better delivery of operations.

And so one of the things we should do on the other side of COVID-19 is to modernize our US government. 50 states, who needs ‘em? Ten regions, here we come. This would work well for our nation and our citizens, and even save lots of taxpayer money on a massive reduction of the sheer duplication of what are nearly identical efforts occurring in each and every state on the exact same issues. Truth is, you likely wouldn’t even notice other than on your smaller tax bill. So let’s stand, place our hands over our hearts, and say it together, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Regions of America…”

Daniel Cotter and Jac Charlier are civic leaders living on the Northwest side of Chicago, and co-

founders of “Local Voice of the Citizen”, an independent, diverse, and progressive voice for the

rest of us.