What's your Utopian system of government for the country now known as the USA?

[Blue3]

What's your utopian system of government for the country known currently as the United States of America?

Some ideas to begin brainstorming below (though you don't need to stick to its structure, it's just an example.)




1. How Centralized or Decentralized is power in government, vertically?

-Is it more federal, or unitary, or confederate/alliance?

-If the number of states change, what are the new states (or whatever you call them) if any?



2. Is it still Democratic? If not, what is it? If it is:

-Is it parliamentary or presidential, or some mix?

-Who runs the elections?

-Who can vote? Can this ever be taken away for any reason?

-How accessible is voting? (poll taxes, voter ID, voter registration barriers, length of voting time, voting by mail, transportation access, handicap access, voter roll purging, etc.)

-Is it winner by plurality, run-off voting, or ranked-choice voting?

-Where does it stand on recalls, referendums, and mandatory voting?

-How are campaigns financed, what regulations are there for it, and how transparent is it?



3. How is the system of government organized, horizontally? Is is still three main branches? Four branches? Two branches? One branch?

-Is there an elected Legislature? (If not, what is there?)
a. If there is, how many chambers (unicameral, bicameral, tricameral, etc.) with how many in each, and what are the differences between them?
b. And how are each of them elected/selected? What are the qualifications? How long do their terms run? Term limits?
c. f there is redistricting like in the current system, how is that done?
d. Are all places/people fairly represented? (ex: Puerto Rico, D.C.)

-Is there a clear Executive (whether parliamentary or presidential or other?)
a. Is there only one chief executive, like a President or Prime Minister or Chancellor? Or is there a Triumvirate of co-equal executives in which all executive actions need at least 2/3 support?
b. How is/are the executive(s) selected/elected? What are the qualifications?
c. How long do their terms run? Term limits?

-Is there a clear supreme Judicial authority?
a. What is their number (9? 3? 1? 13?), how is the national system organized?
b. How are they selected/elected? What are the qualifications?
c. How long do their terms run? Term limits?

-Would you streamline congressional committees, the U.S. Code, the cabinet departments and other executive agencies, the Code of Federal Regulations, and record-keeping of judicial decisions to all match one another; or keep it an organic system that's built as we go along?



4. How much control does it have over the Economy?

-Is it more capitalist, socialist, communist, syndicalist, corporatist, or fascist?

-How much influence does it have over infrastructure systems (ex: electric grid, water, schools,
digital, transportation, housing, high-speed rail national network, etc.) and how energy is generated?

-Healthcare? (insurance, medical/hospital care, pharmaceuticals cost/access, malpractice/tort costs, etc.),

-Education? (PK-12, colleges, trade schools & apprenticeship programs, libraries, after-school/summer learning, cost/funding formulas, personnel in addition to teachers such as social workers/psychologists/nurses/security/mentors/tutors/TAs/cafeteria-workers/ELL & special education aides, curriculum that should be emphasized or eliminated from STEAM to Civics to the Arts to Sports to Financial Literacy to Job Preparation to Multicultural Understanding, etc.)

-Housing & Transportation? (including heating/water/electricity/internet/insurance costs, rent caps, mortgage caps, property taxes, public housing, homelessness, quality of public transportation & roads/highways, etc.)

-Care-giving services? (for children, the elderly, the disabled, etc.)

-Food/Agriculture? (food stamps, soup kitchens, prioritization of healthy foods, farming monopolization, sustainability, cost, genetic patents, urban agriculture vertical greenhouses, hydroponics/aeroponics, sustainable fishing, humane conditions for farm animals, vegan meat, national emergency food reserves, etc.)

-Where does it stand on issues like Social Security for retirement and disability, Paid Leave, Minimum Wage, or Universal Basic Income?

-Where does it stand on issues like Consumer protection, Labor regulations & unionization, Workplace safety, Financial/bank fees & interest rate caps, Pay Transparency, Debt forgiveness, transferable work licenses/certifications, encouraging Worker-owned cooperatives & credit unions, etc.?

-Where does it stand on the Federal Reserve or any similar national bank system, how its audited, how currency is regulated, etc.?

-Where does it stand on regulation of Emerging Technologies (nuclear, genetic, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, space mining, deep sea mining, deep earth mining, transhumanism, etc.)

-Where does it stand on the Environment? (clean water, clean air, pollution regulations, solid waste disposal, greenhouse gas emissions, wildlife protections, etc.)

-How does it manage Taxes for funding, is it progressive or standard, what is taxed and how much, which entities are given preference? Related: how would it handle/prevent government shutdown and debt ceiling crises?



5. How much mixing is there with Religion: is there an official established religion, is there a clear separation, is there freedom of religion?



6. What of the existence of other Rights?

-Free speech? Free Press? Right to Protest, right to Assembly, righto Petition?

-Can people be Tortured, or given the Death Penalty, or Enslaved?

-What of Surveillance versus Privacy, and the balance between National Security and Civil Liberties? Net neutrality?

-What of non-discrimination and anti-discrimination measures? For things like race/ethnicity, sex/gender/orientation, religion, age, disability, nationality, familial status, marriage status, genetic information, etc. for things like employment, housing, medical services, financial services, education, public accommodations, adoption, etc.

-How much personal/social freedom should there be, how many "victimless crimes" should remain?



7. How does it manage, and what rights are given in, the system of Criminal Justice:

-policing

-trials

-sentencing

-prison

-the War on Drugs in particular?



8. Where does it stand on Guns, regulations/rights/access?



9. Where does it stand on Abortion?



10. How does it manage Disaster preparedness, prevention, and response?
(pandemics, cyber attacks, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires, volcanic eruptions & super-volcanoes, asteroid collisions, solar flares, interstellar radiation, etc.)



11. How does it manage issues of Immigration and Trade?



12. How does it manage Foreign Relations:

-overall relationship with the rest of the world, how nationalist/isolationist versus internationalist/globalist?

-overall relationship between the government, military, and civilian citizenry?

-alliances (which ones to keep, which to eliminate, which to create)

-wars & similar military operations

-terrorism & counter-terrorism

-military code of conduct

-military spending

-the intelligence community

-auditing the military/intelligence

-military/intelligence bases in foreign countries versus rapid deployment/projection

-international arms trading & weapons sales

-defense contractors and the military-industrial complex



13. What's your name for the country/government? Is it still called the United States of America?

-Are its people still called Americans?

-Is the flag the same? What changes?

-Capital? Capitals? Rotating capital?

-Dollar?

-Anthem/motto/etc.?

[HillGoose]

The Presidential candidates face off in a game of Edward 40 hands on election night and the winner gets to be President. It gets streamed live on the gram and on TV.

All drugs and guns and sh**t r legal. So is prostitution. The Dodd-Frank bill has been annihilated.

Private mercenary armies get contracted by the gov (whose only source of revenue now is taxes on legalized hard drugs) to liberate the rest of the world and make it like America.

The drinking age is permanently lowered to -37 in memory of the 4/20 oil price crash this year.

[Blue3]

Any new thoughts? Particularly in the 13 questions/categories I posted?

[John Dule]

Senators and House representatives are still elected, but every bill on the local, state, and federal levels is voted on by citizens in a techno-direct democracy system. Citizens will be presented with the full text of the bill via a secure app on their phones or computers, no later than two weeks in advance of the vote. They will be expected to read the bill and answer a set of twenty or so questions drawn up by a bipartisan commission that test the citizen's knowledge of the fiscal, social, and political effects of the bill, as determined by various think tanks and agencies from both sides of the aisle. Voters will then take the quiz-- if they get 80% or more of the questions right, they will be allowed to cast their vote in favor of or against the legislation. Once it comes time for the Senate and the House to vote, they will announce the results of the referendum. If the margin of victory is less than 5%, the representatives of the people will be allowed to vote their conscience. If the margin is greater than 5%, the representatives will be forced to vote according to the results from within their constituencies.

Also, while everyone can still vote for representatives, only property owners who are not in debt or on welfare will be able to vote in these referendums. They will receive extra votes if they have children.

[DC Al Fine]

God-Emperor DC rules by decree. I'll figure out the rest as I go.

[America Needs R'hllor]

God-Emperor DC rules by decree. I'll figure out the rest as I go.

Still not the worst idea here

[Coolface Sock #42069]

A much weaker presidency that is strictly limited in effectiveness by the Constitution. The federal government only deals with defense and other foreign policy. Most laws are at the statewide level. The Constitution stipulates that the federal government may only perform certain functions (all having to do with foreign relations or defense), forcing us to get away from this top-down government that has us so polarized. The federal government still levies taxes directly on taxpayers, but these are for small amounts and, again, only go to defense and foreign relations. The federal government is also prohibited from using other means to force its will on states including the use of conditional grants, etc.

The Constitution also guarantees other rights (including all individual rights enshrined in the actual Constitution) and explicitly states that all state and local governments must respect those rights. The Constitution also explicitly states that all its wording is to be interpreted literally based on its plain text meaning and not as a “living document”.

Outside of this, the main thing that ails the American political system today is the people.

[Ferguson97]

Abolish the Senate. Uncap the House. Non-partisan redistricting. Nationwide popular vote for President.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I think an alternative to a Tory party system of Gov't just like in 2008, which is a far cry from 1980 Reagan compassionate conservatism, is what people are looking for. Gov't isn't the problem, its a helping hand, to help people in time of crisis to get people thru it.  Trump plagerized the Reagan slogan of Make America Great Again, and he made it backward, with his relationship with Putin to 1960s Cold War with Russia

[Santander]

Keep everything the same. The Founders were perfect and got the Constitution from Jesus, after all.

[brucejoel99]

No government, people just work together for the common good & don't act like dicks to each other.

[John Dule]

No government, people just work together for the common good & don't act like dicks to each other.

And everyone has a pet unicorn that they ride down to the chocolate river every day to pick gumdrop mushrooms.

[brucejoel99]

No government, people just work together for the common good & don't act like dicks to each other.

And everyone has a pet unicorn that they ride down to the chocolate river every day to pick gumdrop mushrooms.

Well, that's why it's a utopia. I never said it was realistic