London: a case study in the effectiveness of gun control.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

20. There Is A Way To Do It

Although it's highly unlikely given the state of our politics in this country, a big change like this one COULD be achieved if you could find a large group of people courageous enough to 1) enact the laws even though it will mean the loss of their Congressional seat (a la that Australian politician featured in the Daily Show segment), and/or 2) eschew the big money hurled at representatives by moneyed, influential interest groups.

If you could find people who stood on principle, and valued improving the country over retention of their seat, and who were all willing to commit political suicide in the interest of the country, you could do it. But good luck finding anyone like that in this country. It's all about getting re-elected. Just imagine if we had a group of representatives who actually voted their consciences, beholden to no one, and just said, "Screw getting re-elected."

I've often wondered why more liberal Democrats don't try to pull off a "Black Ops" kind of thing, whereby they register as Republicans, run on hardcore conservative platforms, and then as soon as they win, completely reverse course and spend their 2/4/6 years in office governing as a liberal. I mean, it's not like politicians don't ALREADY lie to get elected. Why not try to pull off something like this? We might actually get some meaningful, difference-making legislation pushed through.