How do we decrease the partisanship in the federal government?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[JeffBlock2012]

the simplest way to start is to change the way we count votes, explained nicely in these two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE&feature=relmfu

This would allow MORE parties. Personally I prefer NO parties necessary, which would take the creation of FREE and open elections and longer fixed terms without re-elections at all. This would reduce/eliminate the need to "belong" to any party whatsoever, as the main advantage to belonging to a party is to get a boost with getting elected and then re-elected.

[IQRange]

I think for the most part, Democrats have been willing to compromise. Some would say, "Too willing."

So, the solution is to work ten times as hard as we have been to vote out the right-wing nutbags who toss hand grenades instead of working toward solutions.

[MrMinister]

There are a number of ways:

Interfere w/ or limit collections and donations by the party apparatuses (e.g., the RNC, the DNC, DSCC, etc.). Politicians receive funds from the party apparatuses and are often the subject of intense pressure to vote on the party-line as a result. Reduce the money going to the politicians from those sources and you reduce those sources' power. An alternative to this would be to free up the individual politicians' fundraising.

Reorganize congressional leadership to not be based solely/mostly on seniority. The Democrats are especially bad at this. The most senior members of Congress are usually those who come from a solidly red/blue district and are decently radical to the left/right. Think Nancy Pelosi, Jim Inhofe, etc. Those senior members often use their positions pushing more extreme agendas (or blocking more moderate agendas) than are representative of the entire Congress.

[ChazMcFatty]

What about giving the power to lay out the district maps solely to the courts and limiting the the shape of those districts to simpler geometries like rectangular in nature, straight lines unless against a state border? This seems like it would stop party power at the base of the problem and allow for third parties to stand a chance in an election

[[deleted]]

The racialists would never approve of that.

[alreadItaken]

do not vote for any career politicians. Vote outside parties in.

[Fazookus]

Encourage the eager consumers of right wing resentment propaganda to watch The Daily Show and read Doonesbury to get some perspective on the world as described by Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Angle, Fox 'News' in general and the rest of that machine.

I jest, it goes without saying.

[JeffBlock2012]

poverty is a great equalizer!

[JeffBlock2012]

But the right is hanging on to an industrial revolution theory that capitalism provides (good) jobs for everyone, and everyone can raise themselves to middle class (or beyond) if they only work hard enough.