If an “accountability system” could enable citizens to hold politicians accountable, what would it look like?

People spend hours every week on politics, making little difference

Imagine two citizens- Debbie and David. They spend about two and a half hours per week engaging in politics. They spend about 10 minutes twice a day listening to political news during their commutes. About 20 minutes per week of their time on Facebook is spent reading and commenting on political posts. They spend about 30 minutes per week reading political news. Could that time be better spent?

Currently, that time makes almost no difference. No matter what they learn or say or share on Facebook, they only have two ways to make a difference- vote and write letters. When they vote, they choose a candidate who seems most aligned with their positions. If they write letters, they rarely get a decent or timely answer and it seems not to matter.

With the right system, they could hold politicians accountable

Imagine designing a system that would make part of that involvement make a real difference. Imagine in that time, they could actually hold their congressional representatives and senators accountable. Even the president! What would such a system look like?

Most people simply think, “it’s impossible.” But that’s thinking “inside the box”. Yes, it’s very clear that it’s impossible, in our current thinking. Otherwise we’d be doing it!

Yet much more is possible than we know. People respond and react to their environment. If we designed a system to do the above, what would it let us do?

300 million people, two good ideas

America has about 250 million adults. I’ve come up with an effective design for an accountability system. One other person has come up with a promising design, though in my estimation it’ll have a lesser effect. In all fairness, it’s designed to improve politics, not to fix it.

Adopt a new perspective

The purpose of this article is to give you a new perspective. It’s very, very uncommon to even consider that our political system is fixable, much less that a solution exists.

If you’re capable of thinking a new thought, take this on: Fixing our political system is possible, and the solution is outside our normal thinking. Eventually it’ll be done, and you’ll look back and say, “Wow- I was blind to that whole problem. I was completely blind to the possibility of a solution.”

Be hungry for a political accountability system

Something you don’t know is on the horizon. You can make a huge difference in making it a reality, but first you’ll have to consider that it’s possible. Be open-minded. Be curious. Even better, be hungry for the details.