Seven Lucky Suggestions For Fixing National Politics
From modest to ambitious, these could make a difference in your life and our political discourse
Okay, Sparky, here’s the deal. Our national political scene is basically a single-act play being performed by mostly thieves and liars, and the plot is “pit people against each other so they don’t notice how awful we are.”
In the words of Monty Python, “It’s depressing, and it’s senseless, and that’s why…”
That’s why I decided to put this list together. We don’t have to get worked up over this candidate or that senator. We don’t have to allow ourselves to be pulled in by the evil undertow of manipulative conflict and oversimplification.
We can identify the cherry-picking, the straw man arguments, and plenty of other logical fallacies if we want, but it’s actually better to not even engage with that stuff. Ideally, we will read or listen closely and dig down into the actual heart of the matter, the issues that really can make a difference. Which means we will often totally ignore the insanity.
So here are my suggestions for making national politics better:
Find a chill pill and take it. Everyone needs to stop worrying so much about national elections. Remember the people swearing they were going to leave the country if Trump was elected? And the people who point and laugh at Biden for tripping and losing his train of thought? They’re so emotionally invested in their candidate that they can’t see that they’ve bought into the cult of personality around that candidate. So my recommendation is to chill out, stop being so emotionally invested in national elections, and free yourself from the whole thing’s hold on you. Be like Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) from “Labyrinth” and say, “You have no power over me.”
Enact electoral college reform. No state should have a ‘winner take all’ system for their electoral college delegates. They should be awarded proportionally based on the raw vote percentage the candidate received. That’s representative government. What we have from most states is people just barely getting more votes in a Primary than their nearest competitor, but since the system is ‘winner take all,’ it’s like that other candidate simply doesn’t exist. That’s not fair at all.
Keep it local, loves. We need to have a national awakening around learning to focus much more on local elections. We should also demand that local reps and public servants restrain their participation in the national scene and make laws to back that up and hold them accountable. Also demand that your local reps/servants restrain their tone and approach and hold them accountable with your voice and vote.
No more forever reps and senators. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We know how bad entrenched power is now so we need to establish term limits for all elected offices. This should become a constitutional amendment. I suggest a simple standard: no more than two terms for everyone, nationally and locally. This will be a natural system for keeping entrenched, scope-creeping, centralized power under control.
Stop showing them them the money. Elected representatives and senators, as well as their family members, should 100% not be allowed - by law - to trade in stocks or do any kind of investing, be it in real estate or currency or corporate. The blatant corruption that has led to people like Louisiana’s Garret Graves and California’s Nancy Pelosi being two of many examples of people being elected to Congress and then becoming millionaires while serving. Due entirely to stock trading and real estate investing. Check out Unusual Whales on Twitter to get the run-down.
Revamp the Supreme Court. Members of the Supreme Court should have term limits too. Since they’re not elected, I think we could consider letting them serve for up to twenty years, then they must retire. This keeps entrenched dogma and power and corruption to a minimum. I also suggest that the hearings for confirmation of Supreme Court nominees be broadcast on Congress’s dime and that news outlets not be allowed to use any part of that broadcast - so as to reduce the circus aspect of the nomination and confirmation process. Finally, broadcast every proceeding. Every deliberation.
Require a reset. A generation is commonly understood to be twenty to thirty years. Our nation’s constitution is fantastic, and I think it could be better. I believe that a law-mandated Constitutional Convention every thirty to sixty years should occur. I also think those who attend the Constitutional Convention should be one senator and one representative from each state - from opposite political parties. I would also say that - by law - the convention cannot result in more than a 5% change to the constitution and that the convention lasts one month and is broadcast on a dedicated channel. To pass any change to the constitution, a 4/5 majority must be achieved. There might even be a cool way to crowdsource ideas from the general population.