Again, keeping in mind that "simple" and "easy" are not synonyms.

Point one: Our democratic political system, by its nature, selects for those who are dying to get into power. Those whose values trend toward family, career, or those things most of us spend our time on, tend to drop out. I've seen some damn good people just get off the train who I would have liked to see in higher office. You can probably think of a few, too.

I don't have a good solution for this. A half-serious idea of mine was to "draft" political candidates.

We also have almost universal franchise, something historically unique. In every democracy prior to this, there were some restrictions on who could vote and who couldn't. The theory was valid--that you want the best people picking your leaders. The practice, of course, was something else again. So here we are at the other end of the pendulum. I study the issues, do research, look at policies, and head for the polls to stand in line with someone with the brains of a squirrel who's voting on the basis of numerology, or how nice the candidate's hair is.

I have no solutions for that, either.

So here's what's left:

If you limit the amount of power a politician has, you limit the damage they can do.

In the early years of our country, government was much more decentralized than it is now. Now, the power of the Federal government overrides almost everything. There is no aspect of my existence immune from it.

If presidential elections and less-than-ideal candidates make you nervous, it's because we're not electing a chief executive any more. We're electing an emperor. Same goes for the Senate, come to that.

Give the power back to the people. Decentralize again. You'll get some places in America where things aren't what one might like them to be, but the idea that every last place in America should be exactly what one would like them to be is the root of the problem in the first place.

Tyranny begins when someone tries to make the world into their own image. Sooner or later that takes a gun.