A draft plan to increase congressional accountability to voters
Accountability is knowing the legislative proposals of your legislative candidates before election day then Congress voting on those proposals. That is not how our system currently works. Candidates with a five-to-one fundraising advantage dominate elections while offering zero legislative proposals. Dodging questions is just good business for the big money candidate.
Voter accountability principles that are Overwhelmingly False:
- Matched Voting – Congress votes on the same proposals considered by voters with no chance for lobbyist edits.
- One-By-One Voting – Congress votes on proposals one-by-one rather than hundreds or thousands of provisions at a time.
- Up-Front Pricing – The cost or trade-off of legislation is presented to voters before debate or opinion.
- Candidates Commit – Candidates commit to legislative votes before the election.
No single proposal could break through in a divided nation with partisan politicians. But a spectacle of proposals, a spectacle of accountability, would be different. 25 simple legislative proposals chosen based on popularity and voted on individually would be a spectacle. Any voter, regardless of party, should have a dozen proposals they support.
If carefully pursued, three miracles of accountability would happen.
First Miracle: Voters will realize by the thousands that a politician can dodge their question, but they can’t dodge all our questions. Voters will ask the gateway question, “Do you support Congress holding these 25 votes?” Candidates will say yes to the vocalized broad-based interest of voters.
Second Miracle: With 25 actual votes waiting, vague answers become transparently unacceptable. Voters would have turned the tables. The new rule would be: “If you want to go to Washington, Answer to Voters!”
Third Miracle: In the process, voter accountability principles 1-4 change from overwhelmingly false to true. (At least for 25 votes) This sets up an example and expectation for what it means to be a representative of the people.
“-rama” indicates an exaggerated display, as in panorama