1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Make Democracy Work: Create Minimum Professional Qualifications for Appointees and Candidates We need to quickly create and pass legislation requiring Federal Appointees and candidates for federal office to meet minimum qualifications for the offices in question. One should not have fewer related experiences and qualifications to become Secretary of National Intelligence than one would need to work at Target. The qualifications required to successfully do the job for the American people should not change from administration to administration. Those who fill the most powerful positions in the country should have an expert understanding of the field and the proven ability to communicate from a nonpartisan standpoint. It is our collective fault that we have failed to protect our government from the avarice of oligarchs by neglecting to institutionalize the regulations needed to function. You can shore up the federal government by litigating the types of guardrails we previously took for granted. We legislate speed limits and tax law because otherwise some of us would ignore the norms of safety and social responsibility for personal gain or interest. We should not hold the average American to a higher standard through these everyday laws than we are currently requiring from our Presidential appointees and candidates in government positions. These standards should be created by bipartisan committee in cooperation with experts in the given field and should be signed into law before January 20. They should go into effect beginning with all federal appointments and elections in 2025 and beyond, and include federal background checks, which cannot be sourced out to private companies, and professional references from experts in the field as well as previous employees, employers, and co-workers. If we are to be a government of, for, and by the people, we should be serving ourselves better. We are currently serving a small cohort of oligarchs with the money to pay to play, producing cabinets of self-serving sycophants and isolating ourselves from the modern world order in ways that will benefit neither America nor our allies around the world. This is not unique to this administration in that there are no legal guard rails to prevent it happening repeatedly. Presidents were never meant to be all powerful or even more powerful than the other branches of government, but our current political trajectory is concentrating power in the hands of the executive branch and even creating a legislative branch subject to blackmail by that executive. Please solidify and maintain the system of checks and balances and reasonable competency that has served us very well for the last 200 years. Do not let this opportunity pass you by. Make America safe from the whims of would-be kings.