We don’t exactly have a lot of time to get things fixed, and if we have any intention of fixing them, we’re going to need a simultaneous emergence of a whole new crop of legislators… say, in 2020 or so. That’s enough time to create the credentials and acquire the knowledge to replace our imploding political-economic system. Let’s not pretend, here. It’s one system, not two connected systems.

If we intend to accomplish more than spreading words and images on the web, it’s going to require taking control of the levers of power. That means national legislators that refuse to suck corporate cock.

You might think that all that matters is money, but if you go one level deeper you realize all that matters is /influence/, and money is simply one expression of that. Money can be used to influence politicians, who in turn use it to influence voters. Influence is how McDonald’s’ CEO tripled his own paycheck.

Money naturally collects around influential people, and creates a positive feedback loop of ever-more-concentrated wealth and power. Equalizing citizen influence on government and employee influence on corporations (and other labor organizations) would swiftly solve the problems of non-representative legislators and vast income inequality. In addition, this approach would open up a great many opportunities for radical social change according to the will of the people. Liquid Democracy is arguably best suited for organizing in this way, but to prevent the dreaded “tyranny of the majority”, it must abide by this principle:
“Each person shall have influence over any decision proportionate to the degree they are affected by it.” (from ParEcon)

Yes, this means the votes of men will not be counted for women’s health issues, unless they are (for example) a doctor whose practice would be directly affected. Yes, this means administrators two or three tiers above you won’t be capable of making arbitrary policies that they aren’t affected by. Yes, this means legislators will be freely selected by anyone, there will be no such thing as “losing an election” (aka ignoring the will of a large minority), and these new kinds of legislators will be able to have their power removed at any time by the people who selected them.

Unfortunately, this simple concept carries a label burdened with negative connotations: anarcho-syndicalism, or libertarian socialism.