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this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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politics
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Honestly? Because a national popular vote (for president) would take an amendment, or every state joining the national interstate voting compact, but wouldn't actually fix the deeper issue of the dysfunction of Congress.
Also, the compact might be of questionable constitutionality.
But fixing congress... This link spells out the problem as well as a one time fix for a problem that's always going to exist.
A one time fix might be enough to fix things for a while...
But to truly fix things...
Set up something akin to Lemmy mixed with Wikipedia. Now, the only people who can post to this social media would be members of congress. Every single bill would have to be posted in its entirety to this platform for at least 30 days before a vote could be called. And then, members of congress could post in the comments, debating the bill. This would also give them ways to post links and research and shit,
Now, the important thing here, this platform would be open to anyone to view.
Hell, add in the ability to post video comments. Let these people play their popularity contests, but out in the open.
Oh yeah, if the bill is amended, then the 30-day timer restarts. Also, no more breaks. Congress is always officially in session. Then allow voting via the platform. Allow votes to be cast beforehand, but they finalize on the 30th day. If the bill does not get enough votes to pass, it's dead, but can be resubmitted, or kicked back to committee. (a sub-lemmy for particular topics)
Maybe add in hired transcribers whose only job is to post transcribed text of any meeting or such.
Then make the software open, and get states to use it, and city councils. Basically all government should be done in text and in the open. With time for those making the laws to actually read them, and for the public to be able to know exactly what's going on in government.
The benefit of my idea here is that it can support quite a bit of expansion, while still allowing a fairly local feeling representation. Because congress could easily work from home most of the time.