It sounds like you are ready for the USA 2.0 upgrade, Caren. You see the dangers of our 18th century system and you don't like it. Change can be had today.
Like most folks, you particularly look at the head and therefore give the head of the system the most power. That is understandable, but also the flaw of the old-fashioned voting system that tried to incorporate some of a king's power. The USA 2.0 upgrade should empower the voters, and not pick one person over all others to then have lots of power.
The US Constitution is on our side, and we can have change in place today. But... it is a complex document. The local level is where change should get put in place today, and the state level is where change is also readily allowed today.
The US Constitution says nothing about voting systems and mostly declares details how to run the Federal level in specifics and gives wide freedoms to the states. The 14th Amendment has been ruled to say that governmental agencies cannot have discriminating systems in place if a better system is available. And fortunately that is available indeed. The happy nations of the world have the better voting system. These two setups in the US Constitution make together a demand on the local level.
At the local level, we now often find just members of one political party occupying all the seats. Some folks are 'lucky' and their city or county has members of both parties. In general, we have a one-party system at the local level, even though in legalese candidates cannot run on party lines. When there are ten seats, it would be natural to find three or four parties occupying those seats. We don't have the natural democracy.
A note about Trump voters. They are sick and tired of the backward system because they cannot express themselves well (just like everyone else). They are ready to storm the barn (and more). In our red-or-blue system, they are the yellow voters. Yellow voters infiltrate the blue party (to make it green) and infiltrate the red party (to make it orange). Our system does not allow honest representation and, as we know, red and blue spin at their pleasing, or at least all the way they can get away with. Our system is therefore rotten at the core because the power is not solidly in place with the voters but floats somewhere between voters and whatever special interests can grab. By putting a real democracy in place at the local level, yellow voters can get pleased at that local level. This will take tension away already from the Federal level; it will undermine the power Trump has today and tomorrow, just enough to wave goodbye to the orange man.
I write about our political system. Here is one of my latest articles: And the Winner is: The Losing Party.
https://medium.com/the-national-discussion/and-the-winner-is-the-losing-party-c683c1d739e5
It sounds like this cannot be true, but unfortunately it is true. The largest block of voters in the USA is the Losing Party.
