My thanks to Prof. Victor for this piece and for her service to the country in addressing the problems of our Congress. I agree that Congress is dysfunctional, and some of the ideas here are excellent. The only idea I find truly pie-in-the-skyish is the social network. Even the Tooth Fairy couldn’t protect its privacy.

Still, I prefer a political solution to political gridlock. I was surprised by Prof. Victor’s affiliation with GMU; I would have expected a more market-based approach, one in which voters’ dissatisfaction is harnessed to change pols’ behavior. Changing how Congress works is a good idea, but changing how it is chosen seems to me the more powerful corrective. We need grass roots campaigns against gerrymandering. Bring back swing districts and swing voters so that more Representatives will lose their seats if nothing gets done.

I believe the best way to fix Congress is to have a president who makes fixing Congress a priority. Let the Dem who beats Trump explain how Trump is what you get when Congress’s approval rating is so low that sane legislators won’t be believed when they sound the alarm bell.

The next President should make the other side some offers it can’t refuse. Let Mitch, if he’s still there, explain to his constituents why Fort Knox isn’t getting that new facility that was part of the military bill he blocked or why his pet infrastructure project died with the big infrastructure bill he killed. It’s easy to kill a bill the other side has weighted against you.

I prefer an ex-Senator for the job at this time precisely because the Senate is the weakest link in our legislative chain. (Biden’s greatest failure as Veep was in not being able to make Congressional rehab an Obama priority.) The filibuster must be fixed. It was a fine thing when Mr. Smith went to Washington. We need a majority party willing to preclude obstruction solely for the purpose of making the President look look feckless. A filibustering Senator should be made to stand there on C-SPAN and spout nonsense while a screen crawl lists all the bills that the House has sent over for passage but are being stalled because keeping the President from appointing a District Court judge is so-o-o-o important. (The filibuster lost its luster when racist Senators used it to stall Civil Rights legislation. Race remains our undoing.)

Also, it would be nice if MSNBC aired the hearing at which Prof. Victor testified instead of the so-called “hearings” — I call them “talkings” — that serve primarily to exacerbate the divisions in the country. Given that Congressional dysfunction is the story, why isn’t it the news?