Fixing the Political System

FIXING THE POLITIAL SYSTEM

What is very peculiar about America is that although we are a very political people, in many ways most of us are not interested in politics, we would rather ignore it and not have it interfere in our lives. Therein lies a problem because if we ignore the political machinations around us we lose our freedoms and the ability to control the political realm. People want and should live their lives as they see fit, but it is a sad fact that too often people would like someone else they can trust to tell them what is fit. We are too willing to leave all problem solving to the politicians, thereby letting politicians perceive and define the problems. How do we solve this dilemma?

At this time our political leaders have a lower popularity than at any time in history. Declining voter turnout demonstrates our apathy or that candidates do not offer what we want. If we don't believe in the system anymore why don't we attempt to change it? We don't trust authorities anymore, we have recently deposed some of them and elected others. We rail against corruption, but we don't do anything to fix it. Do we really want responsibility and freedom?

It's difficult for us to think of our government as "We, the people." But that is how our Constitution defines it. However, our government has become an institution to its own. It is beholden to special interests, whether business or political groups, that greatly influence its decisions. We, the people, are manipulated by these groups and politicians. Under the influence of special interest groups, politicians have too much leeway to make decisions that affect their constituents without following their wishes. As officeholders, they have obligations, duties and responsibilities, but no rights. We need to remind ourselves that Senator such and such has no rights, but the same Mr. such and such has all the rights accorded to any and all citizens. It is when these rights in one person cross over to their office that problems occur. We must remind our politicians and ourselves that they are public servants. Officeholders should have more restrictions placed on their ability to act so that they only act in the public good. There should be a set of regulations that more carefully define what politicians must do and cannot do. This way the relationship of one constituent to hir representative is upheld.

Our political system allows corruption, it's designed to make it easy and attract the corruptible. Do we have the will or desire to change it? It is possible to redesign the system to force fairness and curtail corruption, then the already corrupt will go elsewhere.

The Founding Fathers did a pretty good job of designing the political system, but they couldn't foresee everything, that's why they set it up to amend the Constitution and for the Congress to pass and repeal laws. For our times some traditional structures just don't work well anymore.

Fixing the election process:

Our elections are a mess. Political campaigns are longer and ever more expensive. Each state seems to have a different system, fine for local and state elections, but a major problem for national elections. The system isn't fair, and some people like it that way, but it should be made fair. Each of us should be absolutely equal, regardless of our social standing or wealth. This is already our right.

Make election day a national holiday so that working people have the time and inclination to vote. Elections could be held on two consecutive days, allowing half the population to do necessary work, the other half free to vote.

Political campaigns have gone from a policy of not offending anyone to gratuitous offense. Slanderous campaign rhetoric and innuendo should be banned unless these accusations can be proven as fact. Name-calling is counterproductive and manipulative. Yet there is always a policy of not offending the people by avoiding a firm stand on issues. By using euphemisms or a peculiar political compromise they appear to agree with everyone. Few hold to an ideological ideal or fair principles. It is impossible to please everyone. The collective body of the people does not have one mind. How can government operate effectively in this atmosphere?

A candidate for political office is applying for a job. His campaign is the submittal of his resume to the very large board of directors, perhaps a very uninformed and apathetic board. This analogy holds only in a loose nature because the selection process is too controlled by the candidates and the political parties. The process should be more open, public and fair.

Force candidates by law to debate by standard rules where a winner can be definitively declared.

Nevertheless, we need to take back government to ourselves and become involved in it. Today, we disparage politics and politicians for their corruption, further distancing ourselves from making any effective change in our government. There is an arrogance in officeholders that makes them feel special and above the rest of us. We need to set our politicians down and make it clear to them that they are our employees - public servants, not rulers or bosses, and that they must follow our wishes. A little humility in their behavior would go a long way.

If privileges were removed from political office, then we would more likely get officeholders who should be in office rather than those who want office for prestige and power. Political office should have no personal advantages. Make politics a service, take away perks and privilege from officeholders, so that only those who sincerely want to serve the common good will be candidates.

There should be more scrutiny over prospective politicians qualifications for the job. They should be required to undergo extensive psychological evaluations, criminal background checks before they can be candidates. We shouldn't allow emotionally driven or insane people to serve in public office. Electing people to the most important jobs in the land is done with less inquiry than the average private hiring process.

We should uphold a higher standard for politicians for truthfulness and correct behavior. Any lie or felony should be cause for throwing them out of office and in some cases ban them from serving in any political office for the rest of their lives.

Media and advertising industries love longer campaigns because they can make more money and they're encouraging this process. Campaigns should be limited to 6 months before an election, keeping politicians involved in doing their jobs, rather than campaigning. This should be an amendment to the Constitution.

Elections are public functions. Private funding of campaigns is a major problem that skews the process, making it very unfair. Money does buy politicians and elections. Let's remove private money from politics and fund all elections from public funds and forbid private donations from anyone, even the candidates. This would be fair to all of us. Candidates at each level of office would receive a fixed amount to use as they see fit. This condition would be a test to see how the prospective politicians can effectively use their funds.

State presidential primaries have become more competitive, each state trying to be the first one. Each is run by different rules, some allowing only party members to vote, others allowing independents or even all registered voters to participate. How can this be fair? If we need primaries they should all be on one day and conducted the same way.

We have seen terrible problems with digital voting machines, either defective or results deliberately manipulated. Many states are now replacing them with paper ballots that offer a hard copy record of the vote. A voter's permanent record should be the law.

As a radical alternative, we could decide to scrap the election system and have officeholders selected by a random lottery, just as we do with selecting jurors. It would be fair and equal. And to be fair to those drafted to serve, we should pay them well. Think about how much money and time it would save if there were no campaigns. Private interests would be stopped cold. It couldn't be any worse than it is now.

Redesigning the system:

The worst violation of our rights is lobbying, allowing private interests, businesses and political groups to act as if they are super citizens, having more rights and power than individual citizens. Recent limitations on lobbying are only a cosmetic fix. Lobbying should be illegal because it is an unfair influence on the representative body. It should be one individual citizen directly relating only to their elected representatives. This would stop power group politics.

Congress has made it's own rules without public input: that seniority and the filibuster exist are problems that allow manipulation of the lawmaking process. Proposed bills may have attached amendments not related to the main issue, which are used as a manipulation either to kill the bill or to sneak a new law into effect. It should be mandatory that bills address only a single issue, and any amendments be directly related only to that issue. Any issue that deserves attention should be brought up in a bill on its own merit.

Legislators should be required to read at least synopses of all bills before being allowed to vote on them.

Require legislators to notify their constituents about an upcoming vote to elicit feedback before they vote.

Perhaps all laws should be passed by a minimum 2/3 majority. 51% is too small a majority to justify a course of action opposed by 49% of the people. It's a win/lose paradigm. That inequality and unfairness is a very big problem with majoritarian democracy. And it would keep too many extraneous laws from being passed. We're restricted by the weight of too many laws and the bureaucracy needed to administrate them.

The Seniority system in the U.S. Senate is an antiquated institution which allows older members to have a controlling power. They may have valuable experience, but they have power built on favors to influential special interests. They may have their own ends in mind. Older members may also retain the values and viewpoint of their younger days not relevant to the current situations. Should this be allowed to continue?

Congress votes on all laws except Executive Orders, but it has too much power over itself and us in being able to increase its members' pay and our taxes. Shouldn't the people have the exclusive power to change Congressional pay and taxes?

Where are the people in the balance of Constitutional powers? There's the Executive, the Judicial and the Legislative, but how are we to balance against them? We're supposed to be a part of them, but that's difficult to implement - we're closed out. Yet, we are the majority. Shouldn't we have the right to a public referendum to override Congress? I propose that a 2/3 majority of 50% of registered voters be required to override.

Political parties try to control redistricting to create more favorable concentrations of registered voters. Sometimes these districts are so geographically contorted that they could confound a topologist! Why have we allowed this? This gerrymandering of representative districts should be illegal. Take it out of political party control. A computer program can do it, as now done in Iowa.

Another problem that our founders apparently didn't see is the greatly growing inequality of senatorial representation based on population. Each state has two senators, regardless of population. Representatives are population based - one per so many people. But with such disparities in states populations, senatorial representation is becoming a problem. Take Wyoming vs. California as an example. Wyoming has the lowest population of any state, about half a million, so its citizens potentially have more access to their senators, and that makes Wyomingers have more influence in the Senate, but California has nearly 40 million citizens for its two Senators. It causes states to have a disproportionate power. Should we consider a change in this representation?

It should be easier to remove politicians from office, as a check on their power, rather than having to impeach for perceived crimes or holding a recall vote.

Either amend the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College, or let the states set the policy of assigning the popular vote to Electors, so that the power of the College is neutralized and fairness is returned to the people. The EC is a fossil from the founding of the country, not applicable to our needs.

We could go farther. If we want to be more fair we might consider revamping the entire system. I propose we replace Congress with a parliament, enact proportional representation wherein any candidate that receives at least five percent of the vote gets seated. This would encourage the birth of many more political parties and independent candidates and break the lock of the Republicans and Democrats.

It might be a good thing if a government administration could fail on a vote of "No Confidence" and an election be called, rather than waiting for a fixed term to expire. However, there should be maximum term limits and regularly scheduled elections.

Should the President have the executive power that he now exercises? In these days of the Imperial Presidency this condition should make us wary of too much power invested in one person. The president has too much power; it has accrued to the executive branch at the expense of the people. Power should come from the people, up through the hierarchy, not the way it is now. We could consider that the President is an employee with 300 million bosses.

A good leader, of which there are too few, might suggest to the people a course of action, after all, we need a leader on which to focus and who can administrate and direct our wishes into reality. But the Congress should be the body which has more power than the executive branch, and thus executes into law our wishes.

Should the President represent a political party viewpoint? Shouldn't (s)he represent all of us? That the president is beholden to a political party that represents at best only a slim majority of the people is a problem. Should the presidential office be partisan? That office should be above partisan politics because the president should be the representative of all the people and should not have to support the narrow issues of a party.

A President should be elected for his knowledge and ability, not on a personal viewpoint. The presidency might be reconceptualized to be a representative or figurehead of the nation through the Congress in a process that the people direct the representative body to enact laws and they in turn take their orders to the President. The President should be able to synthesize a consensus viewpoint.

We are forced by the party system to accept a President - Vice-president pair from the same party. These elections should be separated. This condition didn't exist after the founding of the country.

Fix the laws restricting the formation and recognition of new political parties, so that the Democrats and Republicans lock on power is reduced. Take away political party control over the election process. Most people think the two party system means Democrats and Republicans, rather than the House and Senate, the two chambers of our national legislative body.

We don't need political parties. There's no requirement to have them in the Constitution or in law. Candidates could run independently on their own merit and on issues.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn has warned us that the people of the West are not willing to fight and lay down their lives for freedom anymore. Will we prove him right? What concept of freedom do we now have? We are ultimately responsible for it.