Scott Madin

please call or write your Congresspeople and Senators and ask them to cosponsor the Creating a Real Opportunity for Workable, Dynamic, and Equitable Democracy in the House act.

("the CROWDED House Act" is obviously a joke, but I'm not joking when I say the House should have way more seats, probably at least 3 or 4 times as many as it does now, and _certainly_ automatically adjusted every census instead of requiring new laws.)

(also obviously, it is very unlikely that any such bill would even be filed, let alone get anywhere, because what Congressperson would vote to dilute their own personal power? but it would still be the right thing to do.)

Even when they have the very best of intentions, under the current system Members can't effectively represent their constituents, because a constituency of half a million or more people is too big. They can't be responsive to a community's needs, even if they truly want to.

A 2000-seat House would have to work very differently from what we're used to, and each individual Member would have less power within the body, but it would do a much better job of actually representing the needs and concerns of the people.

We also need to ban all fundraising and private funding of campaigns, and make it mandatory for all elections to be 100% publicly funded.

It should be a prerequisite of holding office that you give a full accounting of your finances and show your liquid assets aren't in excess of $1m, don't own any stocks (an IRA or maybe even an index fund is prob OK), don't own more than two homes, no jets or yachts etc.

You can run for office if you're rich (but you can't use your money in the campaign) but you have to stop being rich if you win. You have to sell off your stocks and extra houses, and give away the money (or give it to the Treasury).