Michael and Sarah Walker

I can remember when the news was presented as news. Facts. This is what is happening. If an outlet wanted to offer opinion it was called an editorial and labeled as such. The separation was clear and it was honored because the public expected it and the license required it.

That line has been erased. Rebuilding it requires more than nostalgia. It requires structural protection with enforceable consequences.

The Electoral College asks how states should be represented.

Ranked-choice voting asks how voters should be represented.

Maybe before we decide which system is best, we should decide whose voice we are trying to hear more clearly.

The Supreme Court needs its own enforcement mechanism. A Marshal's service with the specific authority to detain anyone — anyone — that the court by majority vote determines is willfully operating outside their constitutional limits and has become a national threat.

No exceptions. No immunity. No rank that places a person beyond the reach of a court order.

But enough of beer bars and bedrooms. Off to where the real back-stabbing and dirty stuff happens — politics and government.

We didn't just lose the newspaper. We lost the commons it created.

Oh, I would love a basket of Ol' English Fish and Chips with a bottle of malt vinegar right now.

Document and report any suspicious activity, like voter purges or intimidation, to the FBI or state attorneys general.

Ultimately, the strongest defense is high participation and collective action—history shows that when voters mobilize, attempts to restrict access often fail. If things escalate, resources like the DOJ's Civil Rights Division can provide enforcement.

The obvious goal with this set of foundation blocks isn't to fix the broken system. It's to provide a structure with enough strength that it cannot be so easily broken and manipulated again.

The strength comes from simplicity.

Not complexity.

There would still be infighting. There will always be infighting. Human nature doesn't get reformed by better institutional design.

But more handshakes and less backstabbing is not a naive hope. It is what happens when you change the incentive structure. Right now the incentive is loyalty to one person. Change the incentive to competence in service of a shared agenda and the culture follows the incentive.

Not reform it. Not balance it. Remove the institutional infrastructure that makes it the only viable option. No party designations on ballots. No party primaries with public funding. No party based committee assignments in Congress.

Watch what happens to the PACs when there are no teams to back. Watch what happens to the dark money when the jersey colors disappear. Citizens United becomes considerably less useful when there is no party machinery to funnel the money into.