this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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There is no objectively correct answer. Discussing and arguing in this thread is fine but don't be dicks.

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[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Basically democratic socialism but with a few rules:

  1. No billionaires. After 500 million, it's taxed at 100%
  2. No Corporations. Private business ownership only. No Shareholders or Hedge Funds. Basically no wall street.
  3. Lobbying on behalf of an industry is banned.
  4. No party "whips" that exist to make a representative vote the party line even if they're personally disagree with the party on that particular issue. Representatives need to truly represent their constituents, not their party. In fact, fuck the entire concept of "party politics". Ditch it.
  5. By law, a representative has to have actually lived in their riding for 5 years or more.
  6. Representatives are required to spend at least 80% of their time in their constituency, in their office. It's a 9-5 job. No more of this showing up to vote bullshit and then fucking off to Mexico. You serve your constituents, and your job is to be in your office to listen to them tell you what they want 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. Otherwise, what do they pay you for?
  7. With the exception of meeting twice a year in person, most bills in congress/parliament are able to be done completely virtually. The representative studies the issue, consults with his constituents and votes accordingly. They do so without any input from their so-called peers. The only input they are allowed is from their constituents and legitimate experts in whatever field they are looking into.
  8. Representatives have a strict two term limit and an age limit.
  9. At any point, your constituents (and ONLY your constituents) can trigger a recall election due to no-confidence.
  10. You're a "servant of the people"; not the other way around. You get a working man's salary; enough to live and a small dispensation for travel expenses, office staff, etc... But using your position to enrich your own personal wealth is grounds for an immediate arrest.
[–] Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I don't disagree with most of these. Would get rid of a ton of the seemingly parasitic portions of the US government. Aggressive term limits like that would inherently force change very quickly. I've discussed that with a very politically involved friend (far left works in DC). His argument was always along the lines of things move slow so career politician's are needed to actually enact change. If its forced to speed up though, maybe that's good? I'm not really sure honestly. One charismatic populist/small group of charismatic populist could make a huge amount of change in a short span of time. Positive or negative. I do think they should be compensated for their terms at a pretty high level though, say 200k a year with the same benefits a basic federal worker gets. With the stipulation that they can't trade or earn from a related secondary source of income while in office. We want them to be elite thinkers/doers so we should pay them that way. I really like 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9. I appreciate how organized and detailed you were. Sorry my response is kinda scatterbrained.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

True about the pay.

In general I just feel like our representatives are too far removed from the people they're supposed to serve.

Here in Canada, we've had a couple of floor-crossers from the Conservatives to the Liberals, and social media is up in arms about how that shouldn't be allowed. "We voted Conservative, not Liberal". Whenever someone points out (and rightly so) that in the parliamentary system you're voting for an individual, not a party, they freak out and say that's not how it works.

They fundamentally have no idea how a representative democracy is supposed to work.

A part of that comes from an American culture bleeding up into Canada a bit, with people thinking they vote directly for the Prime Minister the same was Americans directly vote for their president. But a bigger part of it is that those representatives spend more time in Ottawa than in their own ridings. And if a representative loses their seat in an election, they can just pick a different riding where they don't even live and run again. It's ridiculous.

[–] Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I like everything you're saying.