A few small steps to stop the seemingly unstoppable corruption in our nations and

[WCGreen]

and the state house capitals all across the country...

Prohibit military professionals from getting jobs in the military industrial complex for five years upon leaving the governments service...

Then expand that to include retiring members of congress, they should not be allowed back into the "hallowed halls" for 10 years after they decide to stop serving the people...

Members of the extended family would also be prohibited from lobbying any governmental body while their spouse or father or uncle or grandfather or grandmother is holding an elective or appointed office...

Full disclosure of ALL lobbying efforts directed at an elected official who would have to have a scroll running underneath their commercials spelling out who is paying for their campaign. That or mail a copy to each household in the district showing who has given and how much they have given to that elected official.

Until this sneaky sneaky tip toeing around the edges of ethical boundaries set up by congress are beefed up, there will be no true reform.

And may I add one more part to this if you please, the challenger in a race against an incumbent should be given at least $100k in public money in order to at least supply some kind of campaign against any incumbent.

So many of the congresspeople are ensconced safely in their seats that there is never any real challenge to their seat.

I got a pretty good look at the corruption on the inside from my over 20 years of looking from the inside out at what is going on behind the curtain to fool and hoodwink the general public.

The corruption is not limited to the money but that corruption of the soul, of the moral fabric of a long term political figure who slowly but surely begins to believe that they are above the law, above serving the people in a true and ethical way...

I watched of a decent man with good intentions turn into a corrupted party boss right before my eyes.

It happens all the time when you suddenly find yourself surrounded by sycophants, whores and ass holes...

That's when the corruption of the soul begins and ends.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. And I would add one other thing: redistricting.

The powers that be get to redistrict the state every 10 years, and this can result in gerrymandered districts that protect all the incumbents, regardless of party.

This needs to be overhauled as well...

Safe seats do not do the people any favors.

I applaud your ideas. They need to be implemented...

[WCGreen]

2. They should just start at one corner of the state and work outward from there

in a mechanical way...

[unblock]

3. you pretty much can't get rid of gerrymandering without getting rid of redistricting entirely.

you can limit it, and believe it or not there actually are laws restricting how extreme gerrymandering can be (it can't discriminate against federally protected classes, e.g., see what texas is trying to do to the hispanic community).

however, as long as there is redistricting at all, there will be ways to pick and choose exactly where to draw the borders.


one thought is to have a completely different voting scheme, such as at-large voting. if the state gets 10 representatives, then the top 10 vote getters across the state win. the one who comes in 10th probably will do it with around 5% of the overall vote, maybe even less. that means there's room for candidates to focus on one region or issue and ignore everything else.

that eliminates gerrymandering altogether, though of course it gets rid of the fundamental concept that everyone should have one specific representative that's "theirs". of course, one could argue that the advent of parties and the hyperpartisanship of late has already eliminated that. if you're a liberal with a republican congresscritter, do you really feel "represented"?

[WCGreen]

4. Gerrymandering is a process and any process can be changed...

The constitution calls for the redrawing of the districts in order to keep representation as equal as possible.

[unblock]

5. sure, you can change it, but unless it's 100% mechanical, there will still be gerrymandering.

and even if it IS 100% mechanical, the exact algorithm itself will be where the "gerrymandering" takes place.

do you divide the state up into equally-populated north-south slices or east-west slices? you can be sure that one system will favor republicans and the other will favor democrats, and that they'll fight to tweak the formula every 10 years.


the real problem is that there are many competing goals, and it's impossible to satisfy all of them, and certainly not without permitting the uglier aspects of gerrymandering.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. As long as people are political animals...

You can believe there will be gerrymandering.