One flaw in the western form of government is the ability to vote to take other peoples money – as there are always good reasons to spend money, and there are no negatives to spending other peoples money, tax rates ALWAYS increase over time …. fixing this fixes the blue/red problem.
1. the first house – aka congress, the primary legislative body – that creates the laws to which all the people are subject, must be elected by all citizens equally.
2. The second house – aka senate, the budgetary and legislative oversight body – creates the budget for the government and has the usual legislative oversight role – and because they control the money received in taxes – only net tax-payers can vote, on a per-dollar basis – pay more tax, you have more votes – it is your money after all! Additionally, I would like to see the government small enough that the ‘taxation’ is purely voluntary – with people being encouraged to give through social pressure, rather than use of force as it is now.
checks and balances
As the first body has sole responsibility for the initial creation of law, the second house cannot do anything without their approval, and the first house has no money to spend without the agreement of the second.
The first house could approve a bill granting $1000 to every illegal immigrant, but the second house can just say no., As it is only the taxpayers voting to elect that body, it has a strong drive to reduce taxes, not expand them.
I would also support direct funding of bills – like gofundme for government programs. anyone can choose to specifically give money to support a bill provided it has passed both houses (even if no funding was provided by the senate). You could have a ‘free flu vaccine’ program, that the senate does not want to fund, but any citizen can give specifically to that program.
Once a state has such a system, you have structurally precluded the possibility of socialism, which would be a win for everyone.
I would also restrict campaign financing to only those who are registered to vote for any given election. That bloomberg in NY (or soros) can spend money on local races in other states is criminal.