Everything Sucks and Here's What We Should Do About It: A US Politics Rant
US Politics is broken. A functioning democracy doesn't just slide into fascism — this has happened because of problems left festering for a very long time.
And the solution isn't just to get Dems elected. It's not enough to ping pong between sanity and chaos against a backdrop of dysfunction. Structural changes are needed that can change the political landscape so that we can lower the stakes of presidential elections, end the perpetual campaign, and have people in government who are representative of and accountable to the public.
I think there is only one way to do this and unfortunately it will be hard. But I hope Dems will consider this strategy because now is not the time for small ideas. The task of repairing the damage wrought by Trump will be massive, but it might be an opportunity to build something better. But the only way to do this will be constitutional amendments.
But, wait, isn't amending the constitution basically impossible? Yeah, it is. But maybe if the backlash again Trump is strong enough, there will be enough momentum to push through reforms, particularly if they are not seen as a ploy to boost Democrats, but as a means of repairing the body politic and strengthening democratic institutions that benefit everyone. I think these ideas are good on their merits, but even if they are unachievable, I think they would give the Democrats a better agenda for opposing Trump than the lukewarm mush that they've served up so far.
One thing that needs to happen is that the stakes of presidential elections need to be lower. One cause of the hyperpartisanship[1] is that every election is, OMG, the Most Import Election of Our Lifetime™. Sure, politicians say that to motivate their base, but it's also sort of true. So, how can we change this?
Amendment 1: End life-time appointments of the Supreme Court justices.
Take the timing of Supreme Court vacancies off the ballot. The current system is madness – justices have to time their retirements to friendly administrations, elections become must-win because a justice is old or sick, and the senate plays games with confirmations to rush justices through or block them through delay.
Instead, have 18-year terms, with an opening every 2 years. If an unexpected opening comes up due to death or retirement, the replacement will serve the remainder of the term. This would mean that each presidential administration will be guaranteed two slots to fill, and any openings beyond that will be temporary.
With this change, presidential elections will still have a major impact on who serves on the Supreme Court, but there should be less urgency and fewer incentives to engage in some of the worst behaviors that have made US politics dysfunctional.
Amendment 2: Mandate public funding of presidential elections.
This one will be controversial, but currently elections are big business and we need to lower the monetary stakes of the elections. The system can't work if billionaires can buy elections and if elections cost billions of dollars, creating a fetid trough fed on by the consultant class, grifters, and self-dealers like Trump over the course of endless campaigns that last for more than 2 years. Lowering the price tags of elections will hopefully rein in the worst of the corruption, and it can also help end the perpetual campaign. Other countries can hold an election in 1 month, so there's no good reason for the US elections to take years. We can shorten them by forbidding private funds for campaigns and setting the timing when public funds are released to narrow the window of active campaigning.
Another problem is that representative democracy in the US isn't very representative. Sure, everyone can vote in the presidential election, but your vote doesn't really matter unless you live in a handful of swing states. And members of the House of Representatives have gerrymandered their districts into safe seats that largely insulate them from the general electorate, meaning that they are protected from accountability and their main constituents are the small slice of voters who participate in party primary. This leads them to more extreme positions and a widening gap between the parties.
Amendment 3: Abolish the electoral college and replace it with the popular vote
Put simply, the electoral college is stupid and undemocratic. However, it also has many negative impacts on the functioning of democracy and governance. It effectively makes my vote worthless since I don't live in a swing state, and it gives undue influence to swing state voters. It sometimes lets the loser win, and it is a means that could be exploited (as tried by Trump) to overturn the results of an election.
Amendment 4: End gerrymandering and mandate that all congressional maps be drawn by independent, nonpartisan commissions.
The Supreme Court has held that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional but political gerrymandering is. Thus, an amendment is needed to specifically end both. If I were designing a system from scratch, I would prefer proportional representation, but I don't think that is feasible. At the very least, however, it may be possible to end practices that have warped the electoral map, effectively disenfranchised votes, protected incumbents at the expense of accountability, and promoted hyperpartisanship.
Voting rights in the US are under attack. Trump was able to win a bare majority and the election in 2024, but he will not be able to maintain that level of support after implementing his masks-off full-fascist agenda. This is an electral problem for MAGA, the solution to which is to restrict voting as much as possible so that it leaves MAGA voters to decide the election.
Amendment 5: Enshrine voting rights and fair election standands nationally
We know how to run free and fair elections, but many states have passed laws to exclude voters, impose onerous burdens, and make it more difficult to vote. An amendment is needed that prohibits the worst abuses and also lays out a concrete list of voting rights and standards. I'm not an election expert, so I can't go too deep into the weeds, but this would include things like moving election day to a weekend or holiday, automatic universal voter registration, ending or limiting felon disenfranchisement, and protections for absentee voting and voting by mail.
I know the odds are slim. The Democrats probably won’t pursue a strategy this ambitious, and even if they did, enacting the amendments is a steep climb. But, I wish that they'd try — that they'd pursue something loftier that people can rally around.
Trump and MAGA are a cancer on the body politic. Democrats are applying a band-aid, but they need to be cutting out the disease and, more importantly, making sure it doesn't come back.
I mention hyperpartisanship a few times, and I should note that, while I think it's bad, I don't mean that the solution should be watered-down centrist bipartisanship bullshit. I would like to see left-wing politicians win office, I would like to see left-wing policies adopted, and I would like to see the median voter of the electorate move sharply leftward. However, the current system pushes partisans on the left further to the left, partisans on the right further to the right (now into fascism), and leaves the center disengaged (now fascist-tolerant). I think for progress to be made in moving things to the left you can't have undemocratic flaws in the system constant pushing people further and further to the right. ↩︎