Hi everyone. I'm one of those restaurant workers, a former entrepreneur, and a student of foreign policy. I can't believe our system is so broken we can't protect our citizens from #COVIDー19 the way South Korea can, but I've been developing a solution for ~2 years. Thread, 1/x
Yes, our country is embroiled in political gridlock. Yes, our country is divided. But it has been since our country's founding. The sooner we disabuse ourselves of the notion that it's #SenateDemocrats' or #SenateRepublicans' fault, the better. 2/x
I don't say this as a facile "it's always been this way" response. The fact is that we are a network of 150-plus-year-old settlements that sought religious freedom and self-determination. We determined our borders initially by rivers and geographic coordinates, not culture. 3/x
But from there, the endeavor to build our society was full of rank hypocrisy. What about the religious freedom of Native Americans? What about the self-determination of African slaves? And now Congress is struggling to determine who should be allowed to emerge from the chaos. 4/x
Unfortunately, there are several competing visions for where we go from here. Today, it's not an "us vs. the world" mentality. As always in the modern era, it's framed instead through the economic lens of the left-right debate. 5/x
Obviously, every politician tells you their goal is to #ProtectAllPeople. The actual answer is always labeled by its opponent. 1) "Bail out workers." "That's socialism." 2) "Bail out companies." "That's corporate welfare." 3) "Do something in between." That's too centrist." 6/x
A quick sidenote: as a student of linguistics, I find it's better to use the language of the opposition when defining terms. It allows you to encompass the critiques of the term with the term itself, so you can take it all as a given when making your arguments. (End sidenote) 7/x
So those are the 3 possible economic solutions to political problems labeled by their opponents: the socialism of @BernieSanders, the corporate welfare of @stevenmnuchin1, or something centrist in between by @SpeakerPelosi. It turns out that you can map these geographically. 8/x
No attempt to categorize people is perfect, but this is close. The two greenish sections would be most likely to support a socialist solution, the yellow one would be most comfortable with a corporate one, and the purplish sections would likely support something in between. 9/x 
Now here's the catch: most political change happens by capturing adequate numbers of senators and congresspeople across these sections. It's pretty obvious why this is so difficult to do, but everyone is trying to force through the problem instead of find a path around it. 10/x
No one's won over by saying that #DemocratsAreDestroyingAmerica or that Republicans are trying to create a #TrumpSlushFund. What we *can* do is say that neither Democrats or Trump are able to adequately address the needs of every American. And we need a solution that can. 11/x
It would be easy to say that calling for a regional decentralization of the United States is a move towards rebellion and secession, but in fact it's meant to be a recognition that the USA needs to exist to preserve democracy, fair trade, and alliance-based peace worldwide. 12/x
So that’s what I’m saying. To save the United States from partisanship that will eventually lead to ruin, allow our politicians to debate within those three ideological Overton windows, instead of between them. We do this by creating 5 subfederations to the current one. 13/x
In sum, let 5 regional subfederations debate and pass policy that fit their constituencies to combat #COVID19.
Here’s how each of the 5 will likely go:
2: #MedicareForAll + bail out people
1: #Trumpcare + bail out companies
2: #PublicOption + something in the middle
14/x
Here’s how each of the 5 will likely go:
2: #MedicareForAll + bail out people
1: #Trumpcare + bail out companies
2: #PublicOption + something in the middle
14/x
5 regional subfederations would do a better job finding our way through the #COVID19 crisis better than one federal Congress would. From there, we could work out how to #ReopenAmerica together. End of Thread.
Addendum: a new version of the map I've been working on for months. These 5 regions are less clean-cut but more representative of and enfranchising for the constituencies we should be building. Again, greenish = more socialist, yellow = more corporatist, purplish = more centrist.
