Come On People Now

There does seem to be more polarization in American politics than there was a generation ago.  Regardless of why it's happened, a lot of people would like to tamp down on it. Thus we have a new book, Contract With America: Ten Reforms To Reclaim Our Republic by Neal Simon (yes, Neal Simon).  Here, according to an article by Morton Kondracke (yes, Morton Kondracke), are those reforms.

1)  Open Primaries
2)  A nonpartisan Federal Debate Commission
3)  A constitutional amendment limiting Senators to two terms and Representatives to three terms
4)  Disclosures of political donations over $100
5)  The article does not list a #5
6)  Ballot access to any candidate with more than 5000 signatures
7)  Independent, non-political commissions to redraw district boundaries
8)  Ranked-choice voting
9)  New House and Senate rules to encourage cooperation
10) A culture of unity where Repubs and Dems treat each other as adversaries, not enemies

Let's not go into how difficult it might be to get legislation passed for most of these items, and just ask would these ideas help.

My guess is probably not.  A few of them might be vaguely useful (and some harmful), but the problem of polarization seems to be one of substance, not procedure, and these solutions are pretty much all procedural.

Yes, it's true many--probably most--Americans are more in the middle than party politics would indicate.  But the bases of each party are always going to have a lot of power, and as long as the bases are large enough, and as far apart as they are now, the politics of the time is likely to reflect that split.  And note that some politicians will try to appeal to the "middle" while others will try to appeal to the far end of the spectrum.  If the people are annoyed enough at polarization, let them pick the middle people.

There's also the question would a newer, less partisan America be better.  I'd like the rhetoric to be toned down, but if more bipartisanship means both sides get together to pass a bunch of laws, for all we know that'd be a solution worse than the problem.