US7.io · A citizen draft · Ten years in the making
The republic
works fine.
Its incentives don’t.
Eleven Articles of structural reform — written for citizens, not parties. Remove the money, publish the record, label the signal, end the dragnet, cure instead of bill, clean the shelf, and let the best candidate win on merit.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens · The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek · c. 1626 · National Gallery of Art
We hold that most of what ails American government is not a crisis of people but a crisis of incentives — that a legislator who must fundraise cannot fully govern, that a voter who cannot see the record cannot fully judge, and that a press whose ownership is hidden cannot fully inform. These Articles change the incentives, and trust the rest to follow.
The Platform
The Eleven Articles
Click any Article for its full provisions and the case behind it. Each carries a painting from the National Gallery of Art — rest on a row and its canvas surfaces beneath the text.
- IOne Term. Full Focus.A single term for every seat in the House and the Senate. Serve the office, then go home.
- IIPublic Money, Public Ledger.No private financing of any campaign. Qualify by votes, receive equal public funds, and account for every cent in the open.
- IIIThe Position Ledger.A permanent public record of what every candidate has said and how they voted — verbatim, dated, sourced. Flip-flops become visible history.
- IVAn Honest Signal.Restore the Fairness Doctrine. Hold media accountable for bias — and print the parent company’s logo next to every news brand.
- VServe. Don’t Profit.No stocks for Congress or the President — personally or through family. And lobbying, a relic of the stagecoach era, ends.
- VIOne Tax Code for All.End the loopholes — for the rich, for the poor, for everyone. What the code says you owe is what you pay.
- VIIWork, Worth & Daylight.Wages tied to the real cost of living. Salaries public, not secret. Pay set by merit — provable, because everyone can see the numbers.
- VIIIPrivate by Right.The mass surveillance of citizens ends. Your data file opens to you, the profits made on it are shared with you, and the people who expose abuse walk free.
- IXCures, Not Customers.Medicine that ends sickness instead of billing it monthly. Prevention first, the full arsenal when needed — and no one bankrupted to stay alive.
- XThe Honest Shelf.Nothing toxic in the food, the soap, or the shampoo. The parent company’s mark on the front of the package — and nothing sold that its own maker wouldn’t serve at home.
- XIManifest Destiny, Rewritten.Bring back the America that dreams, builds, and explores — this time the frontier is up, not west. Educate like it matters, and everyone votes.
Article III · In Practice
The Position Ledger
Every candidate. Every stated position. Verbatim, dated, sourced — and permanent. When a position changes, both entries stand side by side. Voters decide whether it was growth or convenience.
No paraphrase. No spin. The record speaks in the candidate’s own words, or it doesn’t speak at all.
Read Article III“I will never vote to extend these subsidies. Not this year, not any year.”
VOTED YEA — Subsidy Extension & Renewal Act
Article IV · In Practice
Label the Signal
Dozens of “competing” outlets, a handful of owners. Article IV puts the parent company’s mark next to every news brand — so the consolidation behind the choice is visible on every frame.
Ownership shown for illustration; corporate parents as commonly reported. The point stands regardless of the roster: you can’t weigh a voice you can’t attribute.
None of this requires new virtue.
It requires new rules.
Read the Articles. Argue with them. Improve them. That is how a draft becomes a document.
Begin with Article I