How About Replacing Political Candidates With A Jury Duty Model?

The political landscape these days is bleak.

Both major parties field mostly rubbish candidates: dishonest authoritarians and profiteers with contempt for the people they supposedly serve. They've gotten such a lock on the electoral process that most people don't even get to hear those narrow viewpoints challenged by alternative viewpoints with a less authoritarian bias. It's no surprise that only half the population even bothers to vote and those who do do so after trying to discern the lesser of two evils.

The hideous failures of this process are completely unsurprising when you consider the randomly stupid nature of the way in which candidates are picked. First, a self-styled "alpha" puts him or her self forward for consideration by two bloated, entrenched primary parties. They may go through the motions of "public service" while being primarily interested in self promotion (and the arbitrary exercise of power) and, with the collusion of self-styles media "experts" gradually run for positions with more and more power. With each election, they promise things they cannot (and often should not) deliver...and the voters know it and go on voting for them. They vote for measures with near zero regard for Constitutionality, careful consideration or even detailed knowledge of what they are voting for. Usually, they even include codicils in the legislation making them exempt from its requirements.

How can such a ridiculous process NOT lead to growing incompetence and corruption?

Now let's consider another governmental process which, while imperfect, results in competent and diligent public service: jury duty.

Sure some dodge this duty and some approach it haphazardly but for the most part I have seen people approach it scrupulously and with a high degree of diligence. People take their service on a jury seriously, usually follow the requirements of the law and do REAL public service, for almost no money and with no personal motive.

Maybe its time to replace self nomination and political parties with a jury duty type of system.

• Select a reasonable number of candidates from a pool selected for basic intelligence, knowledge of civics and Constitutional law and some level of public spirited action (e.g., volunteering to help people in the community). We want people of at least good intelligence who genuinely care about public service and helping people
  
• Hold run-off elections until candidates are selected for the required number of position.
  
• Keep political parties and their machine candidates OUT of it
  
• When creating legislation, strict Constitutional limits will be a requirement and no legislation will be allowed which exempts anyone in the country from its controls
  
• Before voting on legislation, it should be analyzed by civil rights organizations (ACLU, NRA, PFLAG) for Constitutionality. These organizations will then test legislators, who will be required to get a high grade on understanding its contents before being allowed to vote on it
  
• Of course, this model would severely disrupt the lives and careers of the legislators and executives and so they would be guaranteed a living stipend from the end of their service for some reasonable length of time. However, should any of their actions be determined to be unconstitutional, their stipend would be cancelled and possible prison time would result.

Thank you for considering this proposal.