It's Time to Execute a Ctrl-Alt-Del on Our Constitutional System of Government

As I look at what we've all borne witness to in terms of the grotesque abuses of power over the past year, I keep wondering, if you'll pardon the cliché, if it's not possible to turn lemons into lemonade.

I've been thinking that we should look at this as a sort of stress test - something that has laid the flaws in our Constitutional republic out for us to examine - and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune what our forefathers envisioned.

It's inevitable that after 230 years, things that didn't work as intended would be exposed. The men who wrote the Constitution were just that... Men. They had no divine insight.

What they did have was knowledge, intellect, and inspiration. They also intended for the Constitution to be reexamined and amended as needed and as changing times dictated. It's built right into the document's structure.

Many of the changes I'd recommend would be considered quite radical, which is something Americans don't tolerate well. But here we go:

1.) A total reevaluation of the limits of executive powers.
This administration has used every loophole it could identify to aggregate power. This flows to...

2.) The reacquisition of the roles and responsibilities of the other two branches of government in providing checks and balances to the executive branch. This is dependent on voters holding elected officials accountable, which we're currently loath to do for some reason.

3.) A reevaluation of how executive branch agencies function in the wake of this administration's political weaponization of these organizations.

4.) A reconsideration of federal judgeships at all levels being lifetime appointments.

5.) Banning all partisan gerrymandering at the Federal level. All voting districts should be determined by non-partisan commissions, and should be as geographically compact as possible

6.) Banning all external financial dealings, such as the trading of stocks or other annuities by federal elected or appointed officials while in office.

7.) Overturning "Citizens United," severely limiting the amount of individual donations, and drastically limiting how much money political campaigns can raise and spend.

These are the simple ones... The ones for which I think we could find some consensus. But as I've argued in other posts, I think we need to go further:

1.) Dismantling of the partisan electoral system. I believe all candidates should run with no party affiliation. They should run on their own policy positions - not those predefined by a political party or group.

1b.) I advocate for the elimination of any party delineation in Congress.

2.) Eliminating the Electoral College. It's an archaic institution that has no place in the modern political structure.

3.) Implementation of a two-tier non-partisan election process. There would be an open primary (again, with no party affiliations) for anyone who meets certain qualifications (X number of signatures on a petition?) This primary would employ ranked voting, with the top two (or maybe three, if it's close) candidates moving on to the general election.

The biggest obstacle to any meaningful reform will be the parties themselves. Any of these reforms would lead to a reduction in their power and influence. For any of this to happen, we need to be prepared to bypass both parties and only support candidates who champion this kind of reform.

We should consider ourselves lucky that we went so long before someone (with the help of a massive pre-existing playbook to take over the government called "Project2025") finally exploited them to the fullest degree possible.

Let's identify the flaws we've found - particularly when it comes to executive power - and work to support candidates who pledge to do what's necessary to correct those flaws.