Getting more "stupid" to vote for more "stupid" doesn't seem like a workable solution to me. The problem truly is that the candidates for office are largely hand picked by political parties dependent upon the Big Banks and the Fed for their survival. The second part of the problem is an ill informed, poorly educated, low I.Q. citizenry the product of a broken education system. The only equitable solution is to allow the States that want too, secede. The present system is so utterly broken it offers no hope and that's why voter turnout decreases over time.

Voting with our dollars is more important today than a political vote. Stop purchasing National and International corporate brands and buy locally made goods and locally provided services. We must restrict the flow of corporate blood (money) and greatly weaken the corporate beast before our political vote will once again have effect. Today your political vote is just a vote for continued corruption. End the flow of money, end the corruption.

Obama has tried to turn the tables on us by bailing out failed corporations at taxpayer expense. Obama is serving his corporate masters. He is one of them. Keep voting by withholding your dollars. Obama cannot bail them all out. There is a tipping point. The Christmas season is fine season to have a significant impact. Buy local goods only as gifts. Stay away from the Mall's. Starve the beast!

What an ironic headline for Katrina vanden Heuvel. Her Nation essays typically seem to be rah-rah boosterism for Democrats in office ("big D"). I get the feeling she's less concerned with progressive values per se, and more concerned with vacuous Dem Party politics - a very common failing.

This essay doesn't really stray too far from Dem Party boosterism. If you have same-day registration, it helps the Dem Party voting base. While that's fine, it reflects a stunted vision.

Here are the basic limitations that really need to be addressed. We have high barriers to third-party participation. Electoral processes (like the debates, etc.) are controlled by Dem-Repug committees. We have winner-take-all politics instead of proportional representation. Many other things like instant runoff voting, etc., etc.

I would be shocked that vanden Heuval doesn't mention any of that at all, but I'm not really. She's probably just reflecting the narrow, boss-level view of Dem Party apparatchicks, who have no interest in "little d" democracy anyway, although some people have been fooled.

-TIA

OR simply field some worthy candidates.

“The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual..What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends…Our people are losing…the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy.”

--Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979

Like mother, like daughter.

KvdH only takes us a fraction of the way here. The entire electoral system is a fraud. The winner takes all system favors only two parties often results in minority rule. I don't consider that democratic. The result is a de-facto one party state. Would you trust any market to just two corporations?

In addition, the rigged legal framework that equates free speech with money and gives corporations the rights of human beings is another abomination.

The Electoral College must be abolished.
The Entire Senate ought to be abolished, as it is also highly dis-proportionate representation and blatantly un-democratic.

For a good start, check out http://www.fairvote.org/?page=107

Then check out Stephen Hill's "10 steps to repair American democracy"

I am sorry to be so harsh, but this article is virtual fluff. It misses the main issues altogether. I would expect this in a more mainstream outlet, then again the Nation has become quite mainstream

This was totally funny.

Allow me to rephrase:

"Just this past week, when my 18 year old daughter was back from college for fall break and told me it was too complicated to go register this Tuesday, I realized why we need another important reform I've written about for these last few years-- the compulsory administration of Dope Slaps to one's teenaged children when they are behaving like Dopes-- by means of rolled-up newspaper strikes to the offender's nose, if necessary."

I don't speak Twittish, but if they rebranded "vote" as "tweet", and turned it all over to Twitter, under-thirtysomething participation in the political farce would skyrocket. The politicians' titanic struggle to secure the most Twits wouldn't change, just acquire appropriate technology.

· Yr Obd't Servant

"...my 18 year old daughter was back from college for fall break and told me it was too complicated to go register this Tuesday..."

It seems to me that Katrina's college-educated daughter is symptomatic of the vacuous 20-something cohort that would rather be texting while they watch reality TV than putting forth the required energy to find out about the evils of the fascists in power in this country.

This brat needs to get her self-absorbed head out of her ass and pay attention to what is really going on outside her world of privilege and laziness.