Well the idea that a single point can provide the correct response for every part of a nation is a failure. The problem with this thought is that the US federal government is made up of representatives from the states. States with less people have dramatically more say than states with more people simply because there was an arbitrary limit put in place for the number of representatives. Our federal government therefore gives dramatically more power to places that no one wants to live. The best solution is a hub and spoke solution. This doesn't suffer from the local knowledge problem.
Perhaps it's time to divide the United States up into regions as well as states. Similar to how the federal court system already does it. Then the backwards southern states could fail on their own and eat themselves, in a way that allows the sane parts of the country to continue getting along just fine. Then we would put a giant border wall around those regions, especially Florida and turn them into giant penal colonies. Can you imagine the threat of being forced into Florida? Texas would become nothing more than giant flags and slices of bread.