A question on slashdot today asked: what would you do if you were POTUS?
I’m amazed that, among supposed nerds (i.e., smart people), so many (a) have no idea what the POTUS can/is supposed to do and (b) think that saying “I will fix X” is a plan of action for fixing X.
As an experiment, I’d like to
1) Ban political parties, i.e., any financial entity whose purpose is to get someone elected. This would probably be difficult, since they seem to always arise spontaneously. The only way to do it is to design an electoral system that makes them obsolete.
2) Eliminate the presidency. Divide the USA into a half dozen or so regions (northeast, mid-atlantic, etc), and have each set of states elect an executive representative to serve on the federal executive cabinet.
3) Put prerequisites on almost all political offices: only state governors or senators can run for the executive cabinet, only county EO’s can run for governor, only mayors can run for county EO, etc. Work your way up.
4) Mandatory political content on public airwaves. Take the money out of politics by giving candidates enough air time they don’t need to buy any.
Not to mention, our voting system of plurality is mathematically demonstrable to be the worst of all seriously considered voting systems. I would recommend approval voting: it’s not quite the best, but any further improvement in performance requires a lot more complexity.