Washington is broken, and needs to be fixed.

i figured that i needed to get these ideas out of my head. putting my thoughts here at least would get them documented somewhere. i read a few books this last week that really seemed to showcase the broken system that is our national political circus. i read a book by lou dobbs, and one dealing with senator john mccain. both men, at least in my opinion, are examples of where we need to move this country. moving away from the political left or right and moving toward a centrist platform. this country seems to be controlled by the vocal fringes of both parties.

so, how do we fix this country? well, let me list a few of the things that need to happen. the list below is in no particular order, and likely most of them would need to be done simultaneously.

1. a legit third political party. this can't be some wild, fringe element group. this really needs to be something that would probably lie between the 2 'knuckle-head' parties we currently have. they would need to leverage real and viable candidates and have a platform that makes sense and really impacts people's lives. initially, i would think they would want to focus on health care, new employment opportunities, and education. maybe, take the 'average' approach to define their positions. as progress and results are generated, more 'sticky' issues could be tackled.

2. term-limits for all politicians. this would prevent our representatives from getting out of touch with their constituents. in addition, hopefully this would also prevent the impact of lobbyists.

3. real and meaningful campaign finance reform. this has been started with mccain-feingold, but it still needs to be updated and enhanced to deal with new issues that arise. this will go a long way to reduce the impact of lobbyists and their big money clients. in addition, rules need to be clearly defined on when campaigns are to start for a specific office.

4. politicians needs to really understand the plight of people they represent. so, salaries would be the median salary of the company. if you want to really impact change, then you effect a person's wallet. to often it seems like we have career politicians, and why not. they get great health care, a fantastic salary, and incumbents have a much higher election success rate.

i have to admit that these ideas are not relatively new. they have been around (in some form) since the founding fathers created our government. first, no where in the constitution are political parties discussed and george washington warned of these entities. second, the rules that define how officials are elected clearly indicate that no all officials are chosen at the same time. this would prevent all knowledge from being 'removed' at the same time. third, the elected officials were not to be full time politicians. they were meant to keep their 'day-jobs', and be in touch with the people of their community.

this is just my take on it. who knows, maybe some political consultant will take a look and find my ideas pretty interesting. i know this is not completely error free, but i am sure that we can work through any issues. let's get the ball rolling.