Honestly, I’m surprised more people didn’t respond – I thought this’d be the kind of question the Zone would leap all over.

I realize having more money than your opponent doesn’t guarantee an
election victory, but it certainly gives you an edge. It also allows rich constituencies the ability to promote policies that favor them at the expense of their poorer opponents. This is the main reason the USA is no longer a democracy, it is possible to buy the politicians you want, and once they are in your pocket, they are afraid to contradict or displease you. Unfortunately, the supreme court has ruled that bribing politicians is “free speech”, and has even set up mechanisms so it can be done anonymously.

2) Abolish the electoral college

In fact, any means of allowing a minority to use parliamentary maneuvers to subvert the will of the majority must be eliminated. The usual objection to this is that it allows for a “tyranny of the majority”, but that’s the whole point of a democracy, isn’t it? The majority is ENTITLED to get its own way. The rights of minorities should be protected by constitutional guarantees, not legislative tricks.

3) Eliminate gerrymandering and voter suppression (actually, a special case of 2) above).

District and congressional boundaries should be drawn by non-partisan committees that ignore the voting histories and political preferences of the inhabitants of those districts. It is inevitable that some constituencies and blocs will be isolated, split up, consolidated or dispersed by this process, but that should be a result of chance, not a deliberate scheme by incumbents to preserve their stranglehold on power. Geographic Information Systems could be used to prepare these maps, and the criteria used by the programmers should be published for public review.

4) Eliminate filibustering and cloture.

It should be possible for a congressional minority to delay a vote, or postpone it, but not prevent it altogether. And it should be possible for a majority to eventually bring its legislation to a vote, after a period of consideration and debate. And under no circumstances, should a majority be able to prevent a proposal from coming up for a vote. If they want to shoot down a proposal, fine, that is their right, but force them to go on record by voting against it. This would put McConnell out of business for good.

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As far as the “compromise” part of your question…

For 2), The electoral system cannot be just abolished outright (its in the Constitution), but it can be modified, as it has many times in the past. I would alter it so the amount of electoral votes going to each candidate is proportional to the number of popular votes cast for that candidate. Some states already do this. So what’s the problem?

For 3), Redistricting is now controlled by state legislatures, so they draw the maps. It is patently unfair that the team that won last time gets to set the rules of the game. I’m sorry, but no compromise is possible here. I say use GIS to draw the maps, and publish the code and its authors so they can be be punished if they cheat.

For 4), like I said; ” It is patently unfair that the team that won last time gets to set the rules of the game.”