Still, I’d argue that any Congressional candidate who has worthwhile ideas and good qualifications will be able to meet a test such as getting $5 donations from 10k backers. When I ran (successfully) to be a delegate to the CA Dem party, I collected a thousand signatures backing my candidacy in two weeks.

When brainstorming for ideas, one of the most important rules is that during the first phase or two, no matter how foolish the ideas may sound, there is to be no judgement. It is some of those “crackpot” ideas and comments that light the fire for even more brilliant idea that get used.

Though considering the health care situation, I don’t think our government’s too interested in implementing solutions that have been proven to work.

I think we should force the networks to give back some of the public’s airwaves, and have 1-2 hours of primetime daily, in the 60 days before an election, of a candidate or a designated speaker, discussing policy and questioning/debating each other at length.

In fact, as we all know, it’s not even a matter of reform. It’s a matter of trying to save journalism from ceasing to exist.

Volunteer journalists are great but if you want to deliver outstanding professional journalism to the People so that they can find it, you need some kind of editor, some kind of publisher, and a real travel budget.

Since it is in fact a PUBLIC event, it should be entirely funded with tax dollars where every legally eligible candidate is transported from their hometown to the specified Q&A/Debate forums.

Instead of political parties choosing the person they can best manipulate, let the people do so in runoff elections, where 300 become 1 after 4 elections.