Someone wanted to know what we could do. Well, to break the connection
between money and power which I think is a core problem, nationwide, I'd
start with:
Influence peddling:
* Ban all Special Interest Groups. Elected officials will have to
listen to their electorate for guidance. SIGs limit freedom of
speech of the person in the street and are non-democratic so can
be declared unconstitutional.
* Ban jiggory-pokery with redistricting, use geography and
population densities
* Eliminate term limits: find a good guy keep a good guy, vote the
others out.
* Require Federal funding of campaigns (as has been suggested) and State
* Reduce the number of elected officials to those that count for
political purposes: make the rest civil service career positions
appointed by non-partisan processes. You are a Judge because you
know the law not the power brokers. You are a Chief of Police
because you've achieved great crime reduction goals etc. Side
benefit: short ballot papers and elections are more relevant to
the voter.
On voting rights and polling
* Register everyone to vote when they get a driving license. You
drive a lethal weapon: you vote. You vote in the district of your
current DL address.
OR
* Register everyone to vote when they submit their tax return. You
file taxes: you vote. You vote in the district of your current
tax return.
* Registered party members are not allowed to vote in primaries of
other parties. Unregistered party members voting in primaries of
a party become registered in that party for the next x months.
* Make it illegal not to vote, punishable with $50 fine or, give
everyone $50 when they vote. The rich can afford not to vote.
* Use school bus routes and drivers to get everyone that has no
transport to the polls. Make polling-day a day-off-school or on a
weekend. Use schools as polling stations - give everyone one
regular school meal for their time and their voting receipt! Side
benefit: all parents see something about the local schools.
* Open and close polling stations at the same universal time, for
one 24 hour period.
* Make it illegal for polling officials to be party officials.
and it probably goes on ... We might need a national voter registration
database (ooooo...tricky) and way more cooperation between different
arms of government than we probably now have (ever more tricky).
Quick questions: What political animal does this make me? How do I get
started? Can someone model all this to see if it would make a difference?
Robert C
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