It is great you are thinking of what you can do. The first is to talk about it with others. You need to find people who are interested in making a change. While you can latch on to any number of solutions to tackle the problems we face it is best to come up with your own solutions with like minded people.
One thing people have been trying to do is implement ranked voting. Although we would still be stuck with our two-party system, ranked voting prevents the conundrum of losing your vote if you vote third party. This also prevents other parties from helping out spoiler candidates and using them to continue winning elections even though it is clear people want change.
There has been a bit of backlash against ranked voting with some representatives even passing amendments to prevent ranked voting at the state level. A common criticism of ranked voting is it is confusing for voters. The real reason ranked voting is discouraged though is it upsets the existing power dynamic and would allow more independent or third party candidates.
You can also get involved with local politics. I would highly suggest paying attention to city/county elections. You could run for office yourself or find someone you like to campaign for.
Don’t be afraid to meet with your state or federal representatives either. I went down to the capitol and lobbied for gay marriage personally with my wife. We met with the news and talked with a lot of people on steps besides just the representatives. We ultimately passed this in our state before it happened on the federal level.
In my personal opinion, on the federal level, our biggest issue is privacy. It is time to write our Senate and Congress reps about this and tell everyone you know how important it is we have laws to protect us in this digital age.
Some of the other big issues that need to be tackled is unequal representation in Congress. For instance the county of LA has as much population as 40 US states but California does not get the reps they should in Congress.
We of course also need to get money completely out of politics. No one who is representing us should be allowed conflicts of interests. This means they should not be purchasing stocks or investing while they have privileged knowledge. They should not be running businesses and the revolving door between public office and private companies needs to be closed.
Money should not equal speech because if it does then those without money will not get equal representation. No more billion dollars campaigns and all political messaging should be tightly controlled. Candidates should only be able to sell their messages with their policies and should be held accountable to these policies.
I strongly feel politicians should be held to much higher standards. They should have a board, should pass tests, and should be licensed. All ethics should be codified into actual laws as we have seen relying on politicians to be honorable is foolish.
That seems like a boiling-the-ocean solution, comprehensively replacing the government with a new, better (and unproven) one.
What can be done that’s actionable incrementally, starting right now?
It is great you are thinking of what you can do. The first is to talk about it with others. You need to find people who are interested in making a change. While you can latch on to any number of solutions to tackle the problems we face it is best to come up with your own solutions with like minded people.
One thing people have been trying to do is implement ranked voting. Although we would still be stuck with our two-party system, ranked voting prevents the conundrum of losing your vote if you vote third party. This also prevents other parties from helping out spoiler candidates and using them to continue winning elections even though it is clear people want change.
There has been a bit of backlash against ranked voting with some representatives even passing amendments to prevent ranked voting at the state level. A common criticism of ranked voting is it is confusing for voters. The real reason ranked voting is discouraged though is it upsets the existing power dynamic and would allow more independent or third party candidates.
You can also get involved with local politics. I would highly suggest paying attention to city/county elections. You could run for office yourself or find someone you like to campaign for.
Don’t be afraid to meet with your state or federal representatives either. I went down to the capitol and lobbied for gay marriage personally with my wife. We met with the news and talked with a lot of people on steps besides just the representatives. We ultimately passed this in our state before it happened on the federal level.
In my personal opinion, on the federal level, our biggest issue is privacy. It is time to write our Senate and Congress reps about this and tell everyone you know how important it is we have laws to protect us in this digital age.
Some of the other big issues that need to be tackled is unequal representation in Congress. For instance the county of LA has as much population as 40 US states but California does not get the reps they should in Congress.
We of course also need to get money completely out of politics. No one who is representing us should be allowed conflicts of interests. This means they should not be purchasing stocks or investing while they have privileged knowledge. They should not be running businesses and the revolving door between public office and private companies needs to be closed.
Money should not equal speech because if it does then those without money will not get equal representation. No more billion dollars campaigns and all political messaging should be tightly controlled. Candidates should only be able to sell their messages with their policies and should be held accountable to these policies.
I strongly feel politicians should be held to much higher standards. They should have a board, should pass tests, and should be licensed. All ethics should be codified into actual laws as we have seen relying on politicians to be honorable is foolish.
At any rate, there is a few things you could do.