Do You Ever Expect the intensity of anti Trump rhetoric to escalate to violence?

The whole Congress needs a shake up and if that doesn’t work, do it over and over and over until they get the message.

Term limits.

It's the only way to shake it up.

No Senator serves more than two terms. No Representative serves more than six. Senators should also be chosen by governors and confirmed by the state senate.

Term limits? Good in theory, but knowing they only have 12 years to rape and pillage, I imagine they'd work at it that much faster.

Kill the Electoral College. Ban the lobbyists. Problem solved.

No. As long as people can buy new phones, go out and get drunk, and watch TV, while keeping their major creature comforts, there will be more than enough who will fall in line without serious disruption. We are creatures of habit; Don’t fuck with our routine, and we will play nice.

This 100%.

How do you ban lobbyists without it violating the first amendment?

Buying votes is not free speech.

You can get rid of the Electoral College through Constitution Amendment or at least on a state by state basis get every state to commit their slate of electors to voting for whomever wins the nationwide popular vote. Several have already done that.

But "ban lobbyists"?!? How do you do that without chucking the entire First Amendment?

Challenge the Mitt Romney "corporations are people" canard (something that Citizens United has been working on). Then cordon off the White House and let 'em stand in the street (especially in a DC winter/summer) and shout the way real people do. They could start a bidding war.

If we increased the number of reps to remain proportional, that problem would be solved. The number was always supposed to increase by population (this is why we even have a census) but has been capped.

Aw, but then you'd have the good people of Wyoming bitching about NY and CA and how "they wuz robbed."

No, but the ability to lobby the government is.

I agree with that too. (Too increase reps per population)

Sucks to be them?

Money is not speech.

But speech is speech. Not all people who lobby are paying bribes. A lot of them are just community groups. Writing a letter to your congressman is technically lobbying...you're just not out waiting in the lobby.

Bribery is not free speech. Lobbying isn't strictly bribery, but it's more akin to bribery than it is to protected free speech.

If money is not speech than all union money that goes to Democrats needs to be stopped.

Banning lobbyists actually is not going to solve anything. Lobbyists are a symptom of the problem not the cause.

I've always believed that the number of U.S. House members should be increased to 1,000 and then adjusted upward every 10 years with the census.

But that raises some huge problems. Namely that it might make it all but impossible (even worse than today) to pass legislation in the U.S. House. Right now the House leaders basically have to corral 220 House members to pass legislation roughly. Expand it to 1,000 members and those same House leaders would have to do the same with 500 members. An order of magnitude more difficult.

I’m not seeing a downside to making it harder for the feds to pass more legislation.

Basic governing of a country (especially the one the size of the United States) pretty much requires it.

I’m fine with no money being used to influence anything, but it has to be across the board.

Agreed.

This.

All right, then. Separate the sheep from the goats and tell the goats to take their $ and wait across the street.

Petitioning the government is.

Looks like @Man Afraid of his Shoes beat me to it.

If you go to DC and talk to your congressman, you are lobbying. Do you seriously want to ban going to DC and talking to your congressman?

I think the problem is that money has become involved in lobbying to the point where “bribery” has become synonymous with the term. Remove money, and most people won’t have an issue with it, I would wager.

You say that as though people aren't already doing that

And frankly, if the only way you win elections is to rig the game, then you don't deserve to be a fucking party.