We've known for 8 long years just how out-of-date and undemocratic the Electoral College is. Started as yet another check against the "mobacracy," it is high time that we, as a country, moved past such things and had our president chosen by popular vote.
This would have the added benefit of further cementing America as one nation, rather than a collection of states, as has been happening steadily, one could argue, since the very inception of the federal gov't, but started in earnest after the Civil War. (The simple fact that we say "the United States IS" and not "the United States ARE" as was the custom is a testament to that fact.)
However, in my opinion, a popularly-elected presidency does not go far enough in unifying our nation. It is my belief that we also need a popularly-elected, proportional, Senate as well.
In all other ways (duties, legislation, confirmations, etc), it would be exactly the same, except that Senate wouldn't be re-formed every 2 years with a third "new" membership.
It would work as such: Every 6 years, starting in 2010 (for example), all 100 US Senate seats will be up for national election. However, instead of 2 Senators per state, via the national vote, each party will have proportional representation based on their percentage of the National Senatorial vote totals, as long as they receive at least 1% of the vote (rounding up) making it similar in some ways to a Parliament.
I don't have the logistics all figured out yet, but I imagine each party would run a slate of Senators, with a Speaker leading each one. Then, the country would vote, and senators would be apportioned.
For Example ~
Voting Results such as:
Democrat: 52.8%
Republican: 41.2%
Libertarian: 3.4%
Green: 1.8%
Christian Coalition: 0.6%
Communist: 0.4%
would result in a Senate make-up of:
2 Green
4 Libertarian
42 Republican
52 Democratic Senators (any non-top party is rounded up. The 'top party' receives all Senate seats that are left open).
Further, in this situation, the Democrats would need to try and build some sort of coalition gov't for the next 6 years, perhaps giving some committee chairs or Senate leadership positions to Green and Libertarian Senators.
Something like this would give voice to 'third parties' in that you'd only need 1% of the vote to have a Senator, and thus a national platform for their, well . . . platform. From there, it's not hard to imagine the ability of these other parties to build larger coalitions, and break the two-party duopoly in the country. Dare i dream there to be FOUR parties in america?!?
What say you, Kossacks?