e legislatures; the two-party system; Federal-State relations; government regulation of corporations; ways to expand suffrage; church-state relations, that is, freedom of religion; and minority rights.
1. On the Presidency, points raised for consideration could include whether the electoral college should be abolished in order to allow direct Presidential elections, which would also allow the winner-take-all system of counting votes by state to be scrapped. On the PresidentÆs relation to Congress, it could be considered whether the system should be changed to allow members of Congress to also serve as members of the Cabinet; this would blur the separation of powers somewhat, but might offer some advantages to be seen in the Parliamentary system, while avoiding most of its worst problems.
2. In dealing with Congress and the state legislatures, one could focus on the issue of how the boundaries of legislative districts after each census. It is considered almost scandalous that the procedures in use in most states still border on or even allow gerrymandering. It might be much fairer to assign the redrawing in each state to a team of geographers, demographers, and mathematicians, who would create districts that were both equal in population and geometrically compact. Only after this technical solution to the problem was in place would the politicians be allowed to count their party members in each district.
3. About the two-party system, the major point to be made would be that it is almost an accident of custom. It is not required by the Constitution. One could consider what purposes are served by having only two major parties, and what new purposes might be served if voting rules were changed in a way that encouraged new parties, instead of discouraging them. The important roles played by minor parties historically and in state and local governments could also be surveyed. Would they know that Hubert Humphrey was first e...