I won't bore you with my feelings on your election victory. Suffice to say, I did not vote for you, and I don't plan on supporting you should you choose to seek a second term (no pressure, but wouldn't you rather play golf at one of your resorts?).
The reason for this note is that I think you have the opportunity to do something truly ground breaking that would actually make America Great Again (TM). No traditional President Elect from the typical party system would dare do this because it goes against their political self interest. You are not beholden to that line of thinking...right?
People are fed up with Washington D.C. (You may have heard or said this a few times). It's funny that Congress always has extremely low approval numbers, but everyone thinks their congressperson is doing a bang up job! Why is that?
Also, you see more and more that congress, and by default Washington D.C., does not get anything done, and frequently finds itself playing politics more than governing for the betterment of all the people.
This is not new, our congress has a long history of partisanship and, sadly, fewer examples of cooperation for the common good.
We've heard a lot about Echo Chambers since you were elected, but that is not new, we have been falling deeper into these echo chambers for a long time (blame the internet and shoddy 24 hour news stations). People seek out information that confirms their world view and shut out differing opinions. All of this is a topic for another day, but a symptom of the larger problem.
What is my one big thing that could help make Congress and the government more accountable to every one of their constituents and not just the donor class?
End Gerrymandering ASAP. Make this a core issue to your platform. Shake up the partisan districting that creates complacency and feeds stagnation at both the state and federal level. Push congress to enact legislation to end the gridlock (they will not want to do this FYI).
A great guide to gerrymandering is HERE
In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander(/ˈdʒɛriˌmændər/); however, that word can also refer to the process. The term gerrymandering has negative connotations.
In addition to its use achieving desired electoral results for a particular party, gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, or class group, such as in U.S. federal voting district boundaries that produce a majority of constituents representative of African-American or other racial minorities, known as "majority-minority districts". Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents.
Both sides do it (although the GOP controls more governors seats, so they have done it more lately), but it is a problem that has far reaching effects and creates the kind of disenfranchisement and apathy that propelled you to power (and that you said shows how the politicians don't care about the people who were left behind).
When you have congressional districts that look like this (not a rosharch test BTW), you get congresspersons who are "safe" and can focus on being extremely partisan in their approach (or do nothing at all).
Here is what the whole state of Pennsylvania looks like today, and what it would like if the population was divided much more equally and regardless of political party or ethnicity (you can see more examples of this HERE)
Would this be a cure-all for our country? No, of course not. Would it go a long way towards forcing the House of Representatives to function for the greater good of the country and not for the greater good of the party? I would certainly hope so.
You promised to make America Great Again (TM). Making our congress a true representative body, would go a long way towards helping stop the gridlock that partisanship has brought to us. No more 8 year periods of refusing to work with the other branch of the legislature, or with the resident at 1600 Pennsylvania.
Remember that you are the President (Elect) of all the citizens of the United States, not just those that voted for you. Also, by doing this, you will remind the congresspeople that, they too, serve all of their constituents, not just those that they agree with.
If you want to make a lasting impression as a disruptive force that reshaped Washington...do it literally...reshape the districts that send these people to D.C. and make them accountable to the constituents they have left behind with their partisan political games.
I hope you agree with me.
