AfterNovaHow should the American people structure the government to prevent another Trump-like president (or worse) from ever getting elected as president in the future?
Proportional representation. End gerrymandering. Ban corporate political free speech protections and corporate lobbying. Publically funded elections. Approval voting or STAR voting. NPVIC.
halcyoncmdrYou forgot to add removing the arbitrary size limit for Congress imposed by the apportionment Act of 1929 which directly led to gerrymandering even being a possibility. “Representation” is so inaccurate now that it’s hard to even claim it could be constitutional at this point.
which directly led to gerrymandering even being a possibility.
Gerrymandering goes back to 1812.
Replace the president with a co-equal cabinet, representing all parties with seats in the House.
How are we going to do that? It’s not like Trump is leaving office as long as he is alive and all of the corruption will be so baked in that we’ll never recover even after his death.
And even if Democrats should somehow manage to win an election as some point in the future, they would never be able to gain enough votes to implement an amendment.
And it’s not like they’re willing to anyway.
toomanypancakesThere is no structure you could implement that would be immune to bad actors. It would require constant work from everyone to prevent evil from ever taking hold.
Removing money from the political process would make that waaaaayyyy easier
The current system already was. It took a century of gerrymandering, and an entire political party to decide to commit treason together.
SanctusPour money into public education (and protect said money from legions of grifters) until we start producing well-adjusted young adults who know things.
We are doomed if we cannot overcome the dual party system. So long as half our representatives are buddy buddy they can easily ban together. Enabling third party candidates to have a fair shot of being voted in will help reduce that power. Revise the balloting system so you cannot blindly vote down ticket for a party, without even knowing your candidate’s name, let alone policies. Speaking of voting, something as simple as printing off an optional validation paper that can be collected by a third party would go a HUGE way to letting citizens double check if there’s been foul play in the numbers. Only by getting past the party system will we ever achieve the changes we need.
No-confidence removal for a significant number of offices, including some semblance of tracking campaign promises & policies and potential removal for actions counter to them (voter initiated, not something representatives can initiate). Giving citizens the option of repealling policies with a high enough % vote.
Strict Term limits, age limits. this includes our supreme court. Evidently we may need something more concrete on third terms for presidents, that includes immediate removal & incarceration for encouraging or attempting.
More controversial, but our government should need to be more transparent/open. While they don’t have to be pefect, our representatives should be decent people. They should be required to be more open, and subject to more scrutiny, then citizens. Obvious shit like their income & taxes paid, buf likely far more transparent. Secret courts, secret legislation cannot and should not exist, regardless of what spycraft garbage is ongoing.
Bill of rights modernization & expansion, strict, decisive penalties for violations. Revocation of citizens united and tough implications for any company found paying significant money to influence legislation/election of legislators.
Good question. Since this regime will continue for the next 50 years or so, I suspect educating children to vote early and often is the only way out.
torture and execute the president on live tv along with his entire administration, and hang their corpses from the fences of the white house. when their bodies rot away, and are ripped to pieces by people, animals, and time, replace them with bronzed 3d scanned copies, with a warning to all future presidents on a plaque that says “this is what happens when you try to dismantle democracy, this is what happens when you put profits over people, this is what happens when you betray humanity”
then pass some laws that say as much.
Isn’t it like… the exact reason… the electoral college exists?
Like… “Hey dumb shit voters, we don’t trust you to not be deceived by a conman populist piece of shit, so we’re going to have an elector make the final call whether the one you voted for should actually be allowed to win.”
Yes, but the electoral college has basically never functioned in that manner. People rightly argued that they should get what they vote for, thus electors in most states are legally bound to vote for the winning candidate.
There should be a role against winner take all. All of California doesn’t vote Dem and all of Texas doesn’t vote fascist. A proportional electoral college would have a more center left leaning.
No, the current system enabled him, because it doesn’t take partisanship into account. The fabled checks and balances of the US constitution was created in a fantasy world where people of the same political party was meant to forget about that partisanship in favour of the plight of their office.
Actual realistic constitutions do not do that.
The purpose of a system is what it does
It’s not just the government structure, but the media ecosystem that misinforms the population that needs to be addressed.
Money out of politics. Money out of media.
We need some sort of mechanism that allows for a free press that inspires trust, but keeps out billionaire pieces of shit that want to control it to force a narrative to control the population.
- fix the 2 tuer justice system
- actually punish corruption
- reverse citizens united, money out of elections
- bring back the fairness doctrine
- allow citizens to sue the news for lieing
- 18 year term limits on supreme court jusices
- recall elections triggered for house and senate via popular vote.
- first past the post for all national elections.
- 6 national voting days every year.
- first past the post for all national elections.
?
I have to assume he meant abolish first past the post for all national elections.
I was just checking. I have progressive family members who insist that ranked choice is actually an inferior method. I asked them to explain why and they just tell me that there are ways to game it that are too complicated to explain…
They are quite politically involved but still, for some reason, trust the Democratic Party “old guard”. Likely because they are their own generation and had a great life during their time in power.
18 year term limits on supreme court jusices
Why, specifically 18 years? I agree with term limits, I’m just curious on the length you have chosen.
That’s pretty good. Also means changes are staggered out.
Kavanaugh staggered in.
If money were removed from elections and secondarily if fptp and electoralism were ended…
Then basically every other problem would solve itself for the better.
furthermore If money isn’t removed from elections then social unrest will worsen and intensify.
There is a great book called “A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander, et.al. that came out in 1977 and that contains everything you need to do to solve almost all of today’s problems. Relevant for your question are for example the patterns:
- Independent Regions: "[…]the government of a region becomes less and less manageable with size. […] We believe the limits are reached when the population of a region reaches some 2 to 10 million."
- Community of 7000: "People can only have a genuine effect on local government when the units of local government are autonomous, self-governing, self-budgeting communities, which are small enough […]"
- Local Town Hall: "Local government of communities and local control by the inhabitants, will only happen if each community has its own physical town hall which forms the nucleus of its political activity"
- Necklace of Community Projects: “The local town hall will not be an honest part of the community which lives around it, unless it is itself surrounded by all kinds of small community activities and projects, generated by the people for themselves.”
Generally, almost all of our problems stem from our isolation from the society that surrounds us, which in turn stems from the architecture of our cities and houses. This book shows how to not do that.
duncan_bayneTeach children real history, civics, and philosophy, from a young age. Also how to shoot.
Get rid of the strong unitary executive for one.
Improve health and education.
If you can meaningfully improve people’s lives they will have much less incentive for them to sign up with Trump.
UBI and liquid democracy (you have the right to vote on every issue, even if you can delegate it to another) instead of congress, and exterminating zionist influence on politics/speech, and so confiscating media ownership that promotes zionism and war.
acargitzHow deep are you willing to go? The biggest obstacle you yanks have is your religious adherence to the Constitution and your enslaver Founding Daddies. You got to kill of the American Civil Religion, man, it’s a cancer.
Beyond that, if I could wave a magic wand here are the reforms I would force on the US political system:
- Massively curtail presidential power, and to do that, actually weaken the federal government, massively. Sorry to sound like a Repubilcan, but it is true that your federalism is too coupled and states are too weak financially because the federal government takes most of the tax money. Canadian federalism is better in this respect: 50%-50%.
- Abolish the electoral college, national create election standards and procedures, automatic voter registration, and create independent election agencies, like Elections Canada. If you need to have each state manage its own affairs, have them all have their own agency, but with each one strictly adhere to the same standard. Voting should be simple and straightforward. No more shennanigans with gerrymandering and arcane laws.
- Massively expand the size of legislatures, ideally also get rid of FPTP for proportional representation. Abolish idiotic things like supermajorities and filibusters. Your legislatures need to be able to function. It cannot be that a few senators can hold 350 million people hostage.
- Massively expand and depoliticize your Supreme Court. 9 justices for life? WTF. There should be term limits, and a pool of justices that rotates.
- Lobbying and PACs and shit, all that is just corruption. Go after it.
Basically, its just Selectorate Theory: the fewer the decision makers and the fewer the people they are answerable to, the more “cosmic” each election becomes and the higher the chance for corruption. Democracy, democracy, democracy.
Term limits for all elected government. 2 terms.
Remove executive powers for the President. No other country with a democracy has imperial powers bestowed on a leader.
Term limits for Supreme court.
Proportional voting on all levels of government. Fixes gerrymandering, electoral college, etc: your vote percentage matches your representatives proportionally.
Redundancy. Allow a board of state governments to prosecute US government actors for violations of law. A board of the five largest US states (by pop) and a rotating roster of the remaining states should be authorized to enforce any federal law in addition to the executive branch.
Balance of Powers. eliminate discretionary presidential pardon powers, force congress to approve all pardons and commutations and force them to do it in a separate vote from any bill or law.
Abandon the current supreme court model. The supreme court as it is should be dissolved and a lottery board of existing judges should serve as the supreme court when a constitutional question arises. The supreme court should be convened only when a lower court has a constitutional question and dissolved once it is answered.
Overturn citizens united and make bribery illegal. Ban political donations. Provide a lifetime pension for all congress members (to reduce the congress to lobbyist incentives and selling of secrets). Provide mandatory public funding for elections
Tax the rich to the point their wealth no longer creates corrupt incentives.
Media Reform. breakup the news and private media. Establish heavy tax on for profit media companies larger than a certain size. Create news libel laws where libel can be enforced against a media company or social media celebrity if a percent of followers/viewers are shown to believe something provably, factually untrue due to repeated editing decisions.
institute modern healthcare reforms. Each state. should be responsible for providing their residents healthcare at no extra cost.
Referendums on states and territories: Any US territory can become a state if they have a referendum that succeeds by 55% or more. Any US territory can become its own sovereign country with a referendum vote of 55% or more. Any land policed or controlled by the US government for more than 10 years should be considered a US territory.
I think something needs to be done for DC and puerto rico, if you have a solution that sounds better I’ll replace 9. Imo i’d also be a fan of merginging the two smallest states and splitting the largest one every 10 years
My fear is about all of the military bases that the US has all over the world and how those could in theory become US land through the way you worded that
OBJECTION!Roll executive power back at least to how it was pre-9/11, overturn Citizen’s United, and make drastic cuts to the military in order to invest in communities and improve people’s material conditions.
dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️Said investment in communities also needs to involve a significant improvement to our education system.
let’s not forget about probably the most important part- punish these people so severely that not a soul will ever consider doing this shit ever again.
The problem isn’t really with the structure of the government. It started with the voters. This chucklefuck got elected twice. Twice. If the first time wasn’t bad enough we fucking knew how awful he’d be and he was elected a second fucking time.
The mechanisms to remove him from office for being a senile insane pedophile rapist murdering war criminal are all in place, but half the government sees him as THEIR war criminal and the other half are too timid to do anything.
Even if we restructured the government or reinforced impeachment powers, it doesn’t matter so long as imbeciles will vote a monster like him in and cowards will keep him there.
Step one would be a viable second party.
Soviets
☂️-A transition to socialism/communism. Trump is the result of capitalism gone wild. This is what it always turns into.
What we really need is a digital liquid democracy platform, and removing power from leaders. No more of unchecked corruption until we can get around to another election. In liquid democracy, people can remove their pledged vote whenever they want.
Socialism
Ending gerrymandering would be a great start. Declaring the Republican party a criminal organization would be another.