You can make 3 permanent changes to the way your country is run--which 3?

[MrDibble]

1. Elected politicians (national, provincial + municipal) make minimum wage. Not “a factor of”, exactly the same as. Politics should be a calling not a career.
2. Politicians and government officials must use public facilities - public transport, public healthcare, public schooling for their kids, public housing. On the actual job, they can use pool cars, fly and stay in hotels when travelling etc. when the job really calls for it. But see 3.
3. All politicians and officials get regular lifestyle audits, and any failure in that, or any other evidence of corruption, is an automatic lengthy prison sentence in gen pop (1 year minimum, no parole, for even a small bribe, going up exponentially with the value of the corruption, all the way to life - and only because I’m against the death penalty).

[AlsoNamedBort]

@Folacin

I’ve never understood the love for term limits. Being an effective politician is just as much a skill as any other, and people get better at the longer they do it. I know America has a myth of the ‘citizen legislator’, but it hasn’t really worked out much. Trump, Ventura, Carter to some extent - you need people who know how to do the job, and the job of a politician is different than the job of a CEO, lawyer, plumber, etc. And of course, the GOP has already turned most of the writing of legislation over to ALEC, Heritage and other completely unaccountable outside groups - that would only get worse.

I think it ties back to the fact that while approval for Congress is low, approval for the individual congresspersons is high. Everyone’s thinking “It’s not my guy that’s a problem, it’s that guy over in Kansas. If only there was some way to get rid of him…”

[RealityChuck]

1. The words in any TV ads for political candidates must be spoken by the candidate themselves, in front of the camera. If there is text on the screen, the candidate must say whatever’s being shown. Only exceptions are legal disclaimers.

2. Districts for congress and state legislatures must be designed by an independent authority. The statewide efficiency gap should be minimized as much as possible.

3. Repeal Citizens United.

[BobLibDem]

1. States that joined the confederacy in the 1860s would have their choice of either leaving the union or having their number of representatives in Congress cut in half, diminishing their Electoral votes and making it much harder for a conservative to win the White House.

2. Enshrine abortion rights, LGBT rights, and marriage equality in the Constitution, essentially eliminating these as campaign issues.

3. Make every federal elected official submit their complete tax returns going back 10 years and have the IRS certify that these are actual copies.

[RickJay]

Canada:

1. Abolishment of the Senate.
2. Abolishment of the monarchy, replaced with a elected head of state with very limited powers.
3. All interprovincial trade barriers are unconstitutional.

[D_Anconia]

@BobLibDem

1. States that joined the confederacy in the 1860s would have their choice of either leaving the union or having their number of representatives in Congress cut in half, diminishing their Electoral votes and making it much harder for a conservative to win the White House.

So you want to disenfranchise voters over something that happened 158 years ago? WTF?

[Icarus]

Hmmm, only 3? It’s tough to narrow down to only 3. I can think of at least 6 MUST HAVE items. OK, enough whinging.

1. Repeal Citizens United (not just that, do the heavy lifting to reform campaign financing top to bottom.)
2. Repeal the mighty and hallowed 2nd amendment, then we can start having a chance at progress on this.
3. Universal healthcare.

[iiandyiiii]

1. (US) Greatly expand the size of the House of Representatives – the smallest state gets 10 representatives, setting a population-per-rep value, and every other state gets a proportional amount of representatives. Greatly reduce House staffing levels – with so many Reps, they can do a lot of the research and comms/admin tasks currently performed by staff. Public housing (dormitory-style) in DC for Reps.

2. Constitutional amendment against gerrymandering, for state and local districts. All districts must be arranged by geographic, demographic, and geometric criteria, with a combination of AI and non-political citizens’ commissions (something like jury duty) – AIs generate several proposals, balancing demographic fairness (keeping somewhat close to the demos of the region/state), geographic fairness/simplicity, and geometric simplicity, and the commissions vote on these proposals.

3. Better proportional representation for the Senate, while still giving small states relatively outsize power for their population (just not to the ridiculous levels that they have today): for every ten times the population a state has of the smallest state, it gets an additional Senator (every state gets 2 to start with). For example, if CA has 50 times the population of the smallest state WY, CA gets 5 additional Senators.

[snowthx]

1. Removal of all religiousness from government. Government should be 100% secular, based on laws and science.
2. Publicly-funded political campaigns. No dark money influencing elections. Tangential to this is the financial encouragement of a multi-party system rather than limited to only two.
3. Enforce term-limits. No more lifetime career politicians.

[Textual_Innuendo]

@BobLibDem

States that joined the confederacy in the 1860s would have their choice of either leaving the union or having their number of representatives in Congress cut in half, diminishing their Electoral votes and making it much harder for a conservative to win the White House.

Wow. Although I can’t stomach the thought of agreeing with D’Anconia, and thereby won’t suggest that this might be going too far, if you’re at this point of the game why not just go whole hog:

“You know that ~35% that still support and approve of Trump? Into the meatgrinder with them! And as a bonus, we can feed the result to endangered species…that’s upcycling! Bound to be great for the environment and carbon footprint, too.”

I mean, there’s disenfranchisement, and then there’s disenfranchisement with prejudice.

[dorvann]

Many of you are proposing the public funding of elections and completely banning using personal donations to fund politic campaigns. Won’t this effectively end any third party or independent campaigns? And effectively entrench the Democratic/Republican parties as political machines?
I really don’t see that as good thing.

The only change to campaign funding I’d support is complete and full disclosure of who the donors are to any group that engages in political campaign funding or lobbying with absolute no exceptions.

[Red_Wiggler]

@Grey

I’m surprised no one from the US has mentioned an independent electoral system across State and Federal levels. The fact you allow politicians so much leeway in how elections are held/mapped/determined is stupefying.

Could you flesh this out a little for we who are uninformed? I don’t know what an “independent electoral system” means in this context. Thanks.

[dorvann]

As for three changes I’d like to be made(United States of America):

1. Term limits for the Senate and House of Representatives. You can only serve a maximum of twelve years in each body.

2. Term limits for Justices of the Supreme Court. Twelve years here seems appropriate as well.

3. A constitutional amendment that grants the President to line-item veto budget bills.

[Marvin_the_Martian]

1. Eliminate restrictions on the size of the House of Representatives. Smallest state (Wyoming) gets one rep (like they do now), California gets 65. Wyoming are getting the shaft? That’s what the Senate is for (Great Compromise).

2. Proportional representation in the House. Eliminates gerrymandering, gives third parties a shot.

3. Two-thirds majority in the Senate for judicial confirmations.

[Wesley_Clark]

@BobLibDem

1. States that joined the confederacy in the 1860s would have their choice of either leaving the union or having their number of representatives in Congress cut in half, diminishing their Electoral votes and making it much harder for a conservative to win the White House.

.

From a strictly realpolitik standpoint, this may not have been good. The south was solid democratic from 1865-1960s. Since the GOP was the party of minority rights from 1860-1960s, the south was solidly democratic. Then in the 60s when the democrats supported minority rights and the GOP became hostile to them, the south became solidly GOP.

But that 100 year interim period led to the rise of FDR and the first term of LBJ.

Southern whites as a class vote for whatever party lets them treat minorities like garbage. And it sucks that they do that. But them doing that did help create FDRs new deal and LBJs great society.

A better wish to wish for is that southern whites, as a class of people, were more civilized.

[Projammer]

For everyone wishing to dissolve the electoral college, all I can say is that I’m glad the founding fathers were smarter than you. Keep in mind that although you’re mad about the results in '16, you’ll be glad again at some point in the future. It’s the nature of politics that the pendulum will swing and the other guy’s ox will be the one getting gored.

For my wishes.

Anyone serving in office, whether elected or not, as well as anyone running for office, will be bound by a geas of integrity. In any matter pertaining to their actions in office or their fitness to serve that office they will be compelled to either answer direct questions honestly and completely or not at all.

Universal health care.

There’s a lot of ways to go for the third, but many of them would be rendered moot by the first wish.

Citizens United would be diminished because of the scrutiny and transparency provided.

Ditto for professional lobbyists.

These don’t have to be wished away because they would fade into irrelevance.

I’m liking a balanced budget amendment for now, but I might change my mind after considering this for a while.

[Marvin_the_Martian]

@Projammer

For everyone wishing to dissolve the electoral college, all I can say is that I’m glad the founding fathers were smarter than you. Keep in mind that although you’re mad about the results in '16, you’ll be glad again at some point in the future. It’s the nature of politics that the pendulum will swing and the other guy’s ox will be the one getting gored.

The problem with the EC is that it is essentially a gerrymander of the presidential election, giving a disproportionate weight to voters in small rural states. Add to that the winner-take-all approach to electors (in 48/50 states) and you end up with a system which effectively disenfranchises many voters. It also makes it easier for moneyed interests (and foreign agents) to sway the election result because they can focus on only a few critical states rather than appealing to the country as a whole.

[DavidwithanR]

@Shodan

[ul][li]Balanced budget amendment to the Constitution - the budget must be in balance except by two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.[/ul][/li]
[ul][li]Line item veto for the President, which can be overridden by the same two-thirds majority in both houses. [/ul][/li]
[ul][li]The death penalty for first- and second-degree murder or attempted murder, forcible rape or attempted rape, arson resulting in death or serious injury, second offense drunk or impaired driving resulting in death or serious injury, and telemarketers. [/ul][/li]Regards,
Shodan

If attempted murder gets the death penalty, then shouldn’t every second-offence drunk or impaired driving, regardless of its outcome, get the same?

[DavidwithanR]

@dorvann

Many of you are proposing the public funding of elections and completely banning using personal donations to fund politic campaigns. Won’t this effectively end any third party or independent campaigns? And effectively entrench the Democratic/Republican parties as political machines?
I really don’t see that as good thing.

The only change to campaign funding I’d support is complete and full disclosure of who the donors are to any group that engages in political campaign funding or lobbying with absolute no exceptions.

What about my suggestion, that goes at it from the other direction? All donations private-only, $500 per year maximum, corporate donations made absolutely impossible. (No disclosure needed, because every donation was under $500 and was from a private citizen.)

[Hari_Seldon]

@RickJay

Canada:

1. Abolishment of the Senate.
2. Abolishment of the monarchy, replaced with a elected head of state with very limited powers.
3. All interprovincial trade barriers are unconstitutional.

I’ll go along with that. But it’s funny how little real difference that would make.

For the US (I am a dual national so I get both choices):

1. Abolish the EC and replace with an instant runoff ballot.
2. Serious limits on campaign funding. Really serious.
3. Make a state’s congressional delegation depend on the number of voters in the previous congressional election plus 3/5 of all other persons. States will then want to encourage voting, not prevent it.

As for 2, I am undecided whether to go for fully public financing (my first thought) and a limit to what any one person can contribute. Needless to say both corporate “persons” (including lobbyists of course) and labor unions would be forbidden. If I had a fourth, I would ask for independent councils to draw district lines, but I think the first three are the most important.