How could the US political system be restructured so that it would motivate politicians to make policies that benefit all Americans?

Thanks for the A2A Joel. Some relatively easy steps that could help greatly:

1) Revoke corporate personhood as a feature of law, and nullify all subsequent related rulings that favor corporate speech, corporate money as speech, etc.

2) Publicly fund elections (at each round of campaigning, everyone gets the same amount of airtime, funding, etc.)
Outlaw SuperPACs and corporate lobbying organizations like ALEC - businesses (or anyone with high concentrations of wealth) do not need representation in government, period.

3) Authorize recall elections for all public offices.

4) Implement Swiss-style direct democracy at local, state and national levels to counterbalance legislators who are not reflecting public interests. For example, 100K direct votes in Switzerland can freeze implementation of any legislation passed at the national level.

5) Strengthen the initiative process at the state level and outlaw corporate advertising for or against any initiative (since it will no longer be protected speech).

6) Institute civic lotteries and for public offices that counterbalance elected officials (city councils, for example, could be appointed by civic lottery).

7) Create a computer-generated districting plan for all states, based strictly on population distribution alone, which updates with each census.

8-) Create mechanisms for additional parties (other than the Dems and GOP) to be represented.

9) Institute severe penal consequences for anyone attempting to bribe public officials or corrupt the democratic process (tamper with voting machines, etc.) either directly or by proxy agents. Mandatory 25-year sentences with no possibility of parole would be a good start.

10) It should be said that wherever there are extraordinary concentrations of wealth, those entities will work the system to become players, creating favorable outcomes for their agendas. In fact, it is those special interests that have worked very hard to prevent many of the steps listed above from occurring. These ideas are not new. So, ultimately, the most reliable long-term solution will likely be to move away from capitalism altogether.

My 2 cents.

(from Quora question: https://www.quora.com/How-could-the-US-political-system-be-restructured-so-that-it-would-motivate-politicians-to-make-policies-that-benefit-all-Americans)

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