This is being downvoted, but I do really intend a real point that isn't in jest. Politicians have zero potential of repercussion. Even in cases of corruption, fraud, etc... jailtime is minimal at best. Seizing assets or punishing those funding and conspiring with them never happens. Once you're a politician, you have free reign for corruption. Much of the US and much of the world even believes that our last President and his cabinet were likely guilty of wrongdoing on several occasions.
We do need to have some method of holding stringent accountability. These men fear nothing, and respect no one. If they get voted out of office, they'll just go work for a lobbyist for 4x the salary. I don't think we have to go as far as the guillotine, but let's face it, the French Revolution was a lot more effective than the Occupy Movement at reshaping France and influencing a great deal of Europe. Find something to add weight to their decisions. Don't let them do wrong with no repercussion.
I do not support violence, but you raise an interesting point in your explanation.
So, allow me to offer a condensed set of your listed problems there, and please correct me if I miss/misrepresent something:
1. No mechanism for holding politicians accountable exists.
2. In the event where a politician is found accountable, no meaningful mechanism for punishment exists.
I'd argue that it's not just about holding politicians accountable but laws accountable. What percentage of laws accomplish what they claim to? But rather than admitting this and going back to the drawing board, people dedicate their lives to blindly supporting or opposing specific laws, placing loyalty above problem solving.
That our political system (in general) rewards loyalty over problem solving is strong evidence of corruption.
#1 is partially fulfilled. There can be 'investigations', such as the one done on Newt Gingrich in 1997. They levy a fine of $300K (slap on the wrist for someone with a net worth in the millions), and then he's able to go and run for president 13 years later.
The problem that is inherent to #1 however is that, at least initially, they are investigated by people closest to them. Few people in Congress was to open up any Congressperson for deep investigation. Everyone has skeletons so investigations seem to generally be done in a way to kick up the least amount of dust, yet appear to be in motion.
And you're absolutely right for #2. Rarely are the rich or corporations punished in a serious way. Deceptive business practice that makes you billions? Fine given for millions. Unless you get caught in such a bad and terribly obvious way that they simply must go after you with jailtime, they won't.
There is no way to punish a politician or a group of politician for non-performance, corruption, failure to uphold the US Constitution, etc. You've basically gotta kill someone. And even if you do that, you're likely going to face less time than the average person on the street who does the same. Afterall, all your best friends are lawyers and lawmakers.
Well, let's treat it like a systems architecture problem, right? If you can orchestrate a cloud of servers, you should be able to at least make some progress on a union of states, yes? Good government, I think, is probably like good OS design--freedom, function, and security from others.
