Here’s a few things I’d do if I was President (if Marianne Williamson can run, so can I!):
[ul]
[li] Set up an independent, non-partisan commission to draw congressional districts. Gerrymandering is probably the single biggest contributor to partisan gridlock, because politicians in safe seats can only be primaried from the extreme right (if it’s a Republican district) or extreme left (if it’s Democrat). This means politicians in those districts have absolutely zero incentive to compromise. [/li][li] Abolish the electoral college. Maybe it once served a purpose. I dunno. Today, it’s nothing more than a institutional impediment to representative Democracy. Al Gore got 500,000 more votes than GWB, but he lost because of the electoral college. Clinton got 3 million more votes than Trump, but she lost because of the electoral college. This is just flat-out insane. The electoral college is anti Democratic. Period. It needs to be scrapped and replaced with a simpler representative system which guarantees that the candidate with the most votes always wins.[/li][li] Get rid of voting machines and replace them with paper ballots. Most places don’t have voting machines, but quite a lot of places do. In this day and age, voting machines are just a liability. I heard a story a while back about a hacking competition in LA. Two teenagers were able to successfully hack a voting machine in little over ten minutes. We don’t need ‘em, and paper ballots are safer. This should be an absolute no-brainer.[/li][li] Make Election Day a paid federal holiday. Right now, the fact that voting takes place on a work day disproportionately penalises minimum wage workers who get paid piss all per hour and can’t afford the time off. These people may still not vote anyway, but at least it’d be entirely their choice.[/li][li] Demand states scrap photo-ID requirements to vote/register. I’m not necessarily averse to the notion of providing some form of ID (maybe a bank statement, or utility/cell phone bill with your name and address on it or something), but photo ID laws disproportionately target low income voters and, despite the best efforts of the Republican Party, no-one has ever produced a shred of solid evidence that voter fraud is even a thing.[/li][li] The Supreme Court is fucked. It’s not impartial. On the big issues, they nearly always vote on party lines. An idiot like me shouldn’t be able to predict Supreme Court decisions in advance with near unerring accuracy, but I can. How’s that possible? The problem is that every solution I’ve heard could spark a SCOTUS “arms race”. It’d be nice if Democrats could add a tenth seat and stick Merrick Garland on it, but then the Republicans could do the same next time they’re in power. Before you know it, the court would have 500 judges and no-one would give a shit. I think the best solution is to impose term limits of 20 years per justice. If one justice quits, the President can reappoint another. If any more quit during the same Presidency (not term, Presidency), the replacement should be chosen by unanimous consensus of the other Justices. That process will take as long as it takes and in the meantime the Justices don’t hear cases and don’t get paid. Hopefully, that’ll incentivise them to pick moderates.[/li][li] Immediately re-enter the Paris accords and the Iran nuclear deal.[/li][li] Reduce the military budget by 10%, and let the generals figure out where the cuts should go. The US Military Budget is larger than those of the next nine most powerful countries combined. Chopping 10% off isn’t going to make anybody less safe. Then, use those savings to invest in green energy, build sea defences, offset CO2 emissions and otherwise prepare for the impending climate crisis. Global heating will inevitably cost more lives and damage more property than terrorists ever could, so it’s a better use of that money.[/li][/ul]