CHANGE you can believe in

[Jenne]

 

But seriously, I think military presence as Cain laid out is reasonable, just not necessarily feasible, since this nation is hell-bent on putting fire-and-brimstone assholes in office:

[Zenpeanut]

psycho-analyze presidential candidates (the last two at least) and release the statements to the public.

[Jasper]

I like where that one's going.  Psychoanalyze candidates and force people to read, understand, and pass a test on them, before voting for that person so you definitely know what you're buying.

[wade]

didn't Athens choose random citizens almost like a jury for its senate? if lawmakers are isolated and given shorter terms this could actually be very useful.  Lobbyists can still write the bills as they do now, just they have to have a random set of people to argue over its details instead of their good buddy.

I was thinking something like this earlier in the thread.   throw anyone in there with a proven capacity to learn, they could do the job just as well as anyone in there right now.  Do this when we get to vote on issues rather then the assholes.

a new form of "jury duty"

[Cain]

The Athenian system had its upsides and its downsides.

The problem would be a lazy or apathetic citizenry, most likely.  I suspect the mob rule aspect would be less of a problem, given the nature of your constitution, but it would still exist.  Without an informed citizenry, political endeavour would tend towards knee-jerk reactions and recieved wisdom, instead of more considered responses.

Another problem may be the amount of positions and relative power of higher level institutions, such as the Senate. With so few positions and so much power, it would either require a very quick refresh rate in order to ensure more than a minority got seats (which would also make any coherent policy impossible) or some sort of devolving of power down to the state and county level, which while not sounding too bad, may face even more resistance and be harder to inititate.

[Jasper]

or some sort of devolving of power down to the state and county level

I'm not sure what this is.  Is it like State vs. Federal systems in America?

[Sir Bearington]

My three are

- Freedom
- Liberty
- And getting your shit together to make it happen.