another modest proposal:
since it seems that jerrymandering guarantees Republican majorities in the House and Senate for the foreseeable future, why not run as a Republican and vote like a Democrat once in office?
If you could organize a group of, say, 10 senators and 20 members of the House to “vote their conscience” against their party only on specific issues I reckon 3 things might happen:
1. you’d tip the scale in a bunch of important votes
2. you’d get all the attention and all the power – nobody remembers the party faithful guys who don’t need to open their mouths for you to know their positions. Think Ginsburg: unpredictability is power is glory
3. seeing the power opportunity, other Congresspeople might follow your example.
The trick is to be ready to empty seats and live wherever it’s advantageous. You’d probably have to pull some rise of Stalin type stunts to get the seats… but you’d only be fighting against the party machine, which is looking pretty vulnerable right now, because the votes are foregone conclusions. The best seats to go for here are the anti-battlegrounds, the sleepiest, safest constituencies in the Union.
Tattered Remains of Tartary 
David Brin proposes something like this.
LikeLike
I’ve no doubt. And yet the vast majority of votes seem to divide neatly along party lines, as if there were no room for dissent.
I’ve been saying for decades that pro wrestling is the key to American politics – everything is kayfabe, nobody breaks character. This past year has made me really consider what I’d previously said with bitter lightness, though. And it’s made me look quite a bit more attentively at my local representatives. Which seems to happen to people around my age, I’ve noticed.
LikeLike