How do you build that though? I’m all for distributed power, I think the ideal system for this point in history is a highly federated iterative representative system starting at the neighborhood level, but that still puts larger regional power in representatives.

How do you build a system that has no authoritarian component, but can still respond to people oppressing one another? There will always be natural born sociopaths, how do you thread the needle of preventing those sociopaths from stealing, raping, murdering, etc. while not creating offices for sociopaths to abuse?

Regulating a system comes down to understanding logistic curves. I like to refer to the general concept of a justice system:

• You can get the majority of your violent criminals behind bars, but the collateral damage is a lot of innocent people in there with them.

• Or you can keep the majority of your innocent people out of prison, but the collateral damage is a lot of violent criminals out there with them.

You’ve got to find the acceptable middle ground between tyranny and negligence.

I think the US Legislative, Judicial, Executive system is a pretty good attempt. I think it’s probably a good framework for anything that replaces it. Obviously it needs some major tweaks, but I’ve explored most of the left side of the political spectrum and devoted a lot of time to theory-crafting, and it’s hard to come up with a more resilient basis for a system.

Sincerely I want to know, how would a system that preserves democracy look substantially different? You still need to decide on policy, you need to direct that policy, and you need to review that policy to make sure that everything is being done in accordance with the stated will of the people.

In my dreams, leftists sweep Congress and call a Constitutional Convention, and change less than you might think.