We talk about how divided our country is ceaselessly. And we know our Congress is intransigent but cannot agree on how to make it function again. It's time we find a way to operationalize our differences to make for a more robust and functional democracy. Our country is generally divided between citizens on the political right, left, and center. It turns out that this is reasonably easy to delineate geographically. The West Coast of WA, OR, and CA, plus Las Vegas, Southern AZ, Western NM, and Central CO form a cohesive liberal-to-progressive region. The Northeast Coast from Northeastern NC to Southern ME is also on the liberal-to-progressive spectrum. The Northern Midwest plus Northern New England, with some tendrils west to Kansas City, KS and south to Louisville, KY are generally moderate conservative to moderate liberal. Similarly, the Southern part of the Southeastern states from TX to GA and FL, then north to Southeastern NC is quite moderate if you exclude what used to be called West Florida, a greater panhandle on the Southeast Coast. And finally, the interior of the country so far not delineated is generally quite conservative, with some moderate pockets. So how can we turn this set of geographic divisions into a more functional democracy? By allowing these five regions to have greater autonomy over their policymaking and governance. Under this system, these regions would have broad self-determinative powers, but retain a shared military and currency with the rest of the US and the ability to freely associate with other regions on specific issues. This way, these regions that are so divided ideologically divided due to cultural history, infrastructure for commuting, ecology, and of course partisan politics, can reach a new and sustainable equilibrium of coexistence through newly democratic means. Finally, these boundaries would be democratized through periodic vote so that people can choose what regional system best suits their interests and goals. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a functional democracy that can make progress on policy?