The US government needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Problem is, how do you do that outside of violent revolution? You can't, really. Therefore, there is no answer, and we're all fucked.
This is game theory at work, with the highest possible stakes. So far, the powers that be have stacked the game in their favor. The world moves a lot faster than the legal system can keep up. When they do try to give the appearance of keeping up, they propose garbage bills like these, with these cutesy acronym names that obscure the actual purpose of the bill. It should be illegal to create a bill with an acronymic name. Any acronym a bill's name happens to create should be consonant soup. Even that would not be a full defense against this dirty tactic, because they'd just be like everyone else - they'd make bills with consonant soup titles, but they'd be words without vowels, and everybody would parse the words in the title anyway (how about that PTRT act?).
There is no solution that is feasible to implement, because too many agents are invested in the way things work now, because they personally benefit along the way. Congress should be an hourly job. Pay them well per hour, so they don't need to seek external compensation (and thus provide the possibility that they can be manipulated through that compensation), but only pay them for time when their asses are actually seated, or for time that they can document that they spent working on bills and communicating with constituents. Full transparency for the actions of the members of Congress is paramount, the way I see it.
It's almost like trying to "control" society is a fool's errand, and in the long term it will end up being hugely detrimental to both humans, and the Earth itself. We, as a collective species, have already decided that natural evolution should not apply to humans, we've already decided that humans are "separate" from nature. We fight against our connection to this planet, instead choosing to rape and pillage it. One day our actions will catch up to us collectively, but very few of the ones who were instrumental in making things this way will receive their comeuppance (hell, some of them are already dead now).
The good news is that the Constitution already provides the mechanisms to fix what's broken. I think we should repeal the 17th, so that States have a voice in what the feds are doing, and to help "check and balance" them. I also think we need an Amendment limiting government's ability to encroach on the basic human right of privacy.
The big problem is the so-called deep state. It should be clear to everyone now that the military-industrial complex and the three-letter bureaus are running the entire show now. How do we fix that? The only answer would be campaign finance reform and an Amendment overturning the Citizens United ruling.
And, yeah, if Fortune 100 CEO's can make millions per year running their companies, and if this supposed to be about recruiting and retaining the best people for those jobs, we should pay Congress and the President like a Fortune 100 CEO, and for the same reason. Let's get sharp people like, say, Tim Cook, into the government, while getting lobbyists out.
>The US government needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Problem is, how do you do that outside of violent revolution? You can't, really. Therefore, there is no answer, and we're all fucked.
Stop electing the same people. Stop putting the same political parties in power.
But seriously, remember when the DNC sabotaged Bernie Sanders? Twice? It's kind of hard to take anything about change through voting seriously. The rot and corruption has taken over, and I don't think we can vote our way out.
As for parties, the spoiler effect means we will never see a serious 3rd party, that ship has sailed.
A third party needs to build itself up via the house and the senate over several years before it has any hopes of taking the presidency. The GOP did it under Lincoln and the Democrats did it under Jackson, so it's possible, just not likely, until it is. Forget the presidency, vote 3rd party for house and eventually senate, then possibly the presidency.
It's more likely now than it's been in a long time because the traditional media isn't as powerful as they were. The traditional media (TV, Newspapers) typically is hyper critical of third parties because they are financially and ideologically in bed with the existing two.
The way to fix this with the system is by voting locally and federally to remove the gears of power that don't want to move to their constituent's will. While I appreciate a certain resistance or hesitancy toward action (or inaction) it's unfortunate that we as a society routinely elects the same people to the positions of power and then expect anything to change. It won't. If you want to change the DNC you need to have a majority of the DNC on your side. That means getting involved not only in governance but also politics. Barely anyone does the former and even less do the second.
It's not just the spoiler effect. Republicans and Democrats have voted on ballot requirements that often hold a higher bar for third parties than for republicans and democrats. Like the spoiler effect, these things fixing these things only requires political will— a will that has direct negative incentives for the parties that could change it.
This is game theory at work, with the highest possible stakes. So far, the powers that be have stacked the game in their favor. The world moves a lot faster than the legal system can keep up. When they do try to give the appearance of keeping up, they propose garbage bills like these, with these cutesy acronym names that obscure the actual purpose of the bill. It should be illegal to create a bill with an acronymic name. Any acronym a bill's name happens to create should be consonant soup. Even that would not be a full defense against this dirty tactic, because they'd just be like everyone else - they'd make bills with consonant soup titles, but they'd be words without vowels, and everybody would parse the words in the title anyway (how about that PTRT act?).
There is no solution that is feasible to implement, because too many agents are invested in the way things work now, because they personally benefit along the way. Congress should be an hourly job. Pay them well per hour, so they don't need to seek external compensation (and thus provide the possibility that they can be manipulated through that compensation), but only pay them for time when their asses are actually seated, or for time that they can document that they spent working on bills and communicating with constituents. Full transparency for the actions of the members of Congress is paramount, the way I see it.
It's almost like trying to "control" society is a fool's errand, and in the long term it will end up being hugely detrimental to both humans, and the Earth itself. We, as a collective species, have already decided that natural evolution should not apply to humans, we've already decided that humans are "separate" from nature. We fight against our connection to this planet, instead choosing to rape and pillage it. One day our actions will catch up to us collectively, but very few of the ones who were instrumental in making things this way will receive their comeuppance (hell, some of them are already dead now).