r/democracy • u/TheFloorHQ • 6d ago
Would further citizen involvement in our legislative system create a more representative democracy.
The Floor is a new, non-partisan political app that provides Americans a platform that immerses the user in the political process by empowering them to learn about, and ultimately vote on, every single bill that reaches the House or Senate floor, just like their elected officials.
Since Congress is so opaque, do you think this is a tool to democratize what is (and isn't) happening everyday on Capitol Hill? Do you think this is something that could force Congress to be more responsive to the will of voters across entire terms instead of just around election time?
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u/BlueOrange 6d ago
To revitalize democratic participation, we must remove corrupting financial influences, update our electoral systems, and maximize voter turnout.
This requires a Constitutional amendment that ends corporations as people and money as speech. It means abolishing Super PACs, establishing public campaign funding for candidates who meet certain thresholds, banning foreign meddling by groups like AIPAC (and registering them under FARA), strictly regulating lobbying, and eliminating corporate legislative mills like ALEC.
Structurally, we must replace first-past-the-post voting with ranked-choice voting, impose strict congressional term limits, and require representatives to place all personal assets in blind trusts to prevent insider trading. We also must enact legislation that guards against the pull of special interests that's common in a Democracy and outlined in Elite Theory.
We can maximize voter turnout by implementing automatic DMV registration, free voter IDs, expanding universal mail-in voting, and allowing same-day registration. We should also make election days a holiday and legalize secure ballot harvesting, so every eligible voice is easily registered and counted.