Aisle 47 – Installment 9 – Additional Ideas to Improve U.S. Democracy

This is the ninth and final installment in the short blog series, Cleanup on Aisle 47, which is meant to present ideas on rebuilding and strengthening U.S. democracy. 

---

With the Cleanup on Aisle 47 series, I wanted to share ideas for rebuilding, improving and strengthening democracy in the United States. I’ve covered the following broad areas:

1) An overview of some of what has gone wrong in the country that has been deliberately caused by Donald Trump and those he put into power, MAGA Republicans, and the people and organizations behind Project 2025, the 800-page marching orders for the Trump regime to dismantle our government. https://maryewarner.com/2026/07/04/cleanup-on-aisle-47-installment-1/ 

2) A list of American values we are attempting to achieve. https://maryewarner.com/2026/07/10/aisle-47-installment-2-american-values/

3) Ideas for placing more limitations on POTUS to avoid future dictators. https://maryewarner.com/2026/07/17/aisle-47-installment-3-potus-avoiding-future-dictators/

4) Suggestions for creating a functioning Congress. https://maryewarner.com/2026/07/25/aisle-47-installment-4-creating-a-functional-congress/

5) Ways to unstack and improve SCOTUS. https://maryewarner.com/2026/08/02/aisle-47-installment-5-unstacking-improving-scotus/

6) How to rebuild federal agencies and the federal workforce. https://maryewarner.com/2026/08/09/aisle-47-installment-6-rebuilding-federal-agencies-workforce/

7) Ways to improve political campaigns and elections, along with how to make voting easy. https://maryewarner.com/2026/08/15/aisle-47-installment-7-improving-political-campaigns-elections-make-voting-easy/

8) How to make the economy work for everyday Americans. It is wealth inequality that is the primary driver of the dismantling of democracy. https://maryewarner.com/2026/08/23/aisle-47-installment-8-making-the-economy-work-for-everyday-americans/

Final Lightning Round of Ideas

With the final installment of Aisle 47, I want to present a lightning round of ideas, some of which I thought of after publishing where they would naturally fit in the series, plus ideas that don’t fit elsewhere. Some of these deserve their own posts, but I didn’t want to belabor the series.

Let’s jump in. These are in no particular order.

~ Make Washington, D.C. a state. The president should not be allowed to call out the National Guard in D.C. or take over its police department, as Trump has done and Republicans in Congress have allowed.

~ Make Puerto Rico a state.

~ Legalize abortion.

~ Legalize cannabis.

~ The Johnson Amendment was under attack in 2025. The amendment is part of the IRS code that prevents religious organizations and other nonprofits from endorsing specific candidates and parties. If they want to continue enjoying the benefits of nonprofit status (ie. not pay taxes), churches should not be allowed to endorse politicians from the pulpit. While the Johnson Amendment remains in effect, it became scarily close to be abolished for churches and other religious nonprofits. We have a separation of church and state in the U.S. for a reason … because it is good for democracy not to elevate one religion above others. The Trump regime remains committed to destroying the Johnson Amendment, so we need to protect it. (https://natlawreview.com/article/religious-organizations-and-political-activity-2026-election-year-guide)

~ Continuing in the vein of keeping church and state separate, we also need to prevent mega churches from becoming PACs. We should require all religious organizations above a certain income limit file IRS 990 annually. Mega churches should provide financial transparency to the public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Amendment

~ Pass meaningful gun legislation that gets automatic weapons off the streets and out of people’s hands. We are sick and tired of school shootings and shootings at other mass gatherings. People are furious that Republicans in Congress won’t do anything to ban weapons meant for killing large amounts of people, though many sensible ideas have been put forth.

~ Pass privacy rights legislation to protect our private data from being vacuumed up, used, and sold by giant organizations. After Elon Musk’s DOGE messed with our private data at government agencies, we also need to make our government data more secure and keep some of it walled off from other areas of the government.

~ Demilitarize law enforcement and train officers in mental health assistance and de-escalation. No more local police called upon to help with federal enforcement related to immigration, like Operation Metro Surge & etc.

~ No more mass surveillance on Americans. Limit the use of all brands of surveillance cameras – this isn’t just a Flock issue. Any law enforcement personnel caught using surveillance camera footage without a warrant or for other unauthorized purposes, like stalking, should be immediately fired and not allowed to work in law enforcement or security ever again.

~ Pass immigration legislation that deals with immigration issues in a humane way. Stop allowing politicians to avoid fixing this system so they can use immigration as an issue to divide everyone. No more vilifying or criminalizing immigrants just for being immigrants or using them as political pawns.

~ Abolish ICE altogether. Other agencies can handle immigration matters. Prosecute every ICE agent who has killed or injured people.

~ Permanently ban concentration camps. The U.S. should never set up a concentration camp here in the U.S. or abroad every again. Full stop. No more separating immigrant families, putting children in cages, using military judges to handle immigration matters (Trump fired most of the immigration judges, which should never have happened), providing immigrants, including children, no legal representation, and detaining immigrants in hell holes without proper food, sanitation, heating or air conditioning, or medical care. (Stephen Miller is the sick mastermind behind this immigration cruelty. He and everyone involved with the current concentration camp system need to be prosecuted to the full extent of international law for human rights abuses.) See this article on fixing the broken immigration/concentration camp system: https://lawblogs.uc.edu/ihrlr/2026/04/22/the-rise-of-the-modern-american-concentration-camp/ – Also, follow Andrea Pitzer, who has written a book on concentration camps throughout history. https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com

~ Do not allow for slave labor in prisons. This is part of the Constitution and it allows for the unfair treatment of prisoners by private prison contractors. They don’t pay prisoners appropriately for their labor. It’s a system set up to encourage incarceration.

~ Review and update the federal prison grievance process, which is so broken that only about 2% of grievances get listened to or resolved. Prisoners have to go through the grievance process for medical issues, which shouldn’t be happening. See NPR story on broken prison grievance process. https://www.npr.org/2026/06/17/nx-s1-5343603/prison-lawsuits-grievance-denial-investigation

~ Bring back our right to trial. Limit binding arbitration, especially with tech products (Terms of Service). https://reason.com/2026/07/13/how-the-right-to-trial-became-a-legal-fiction/

~ The United States must join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which it had a hand in creating but has never belonged to. Now that Donald Trump and his regime, particularly Pete Hegseth, have committed war crimes in Venezuela and Iran, they need to be held accountable by the ICC. Trump knows this, which is why he is trying to dismantle the ICC. Accountability for the wealthy and powerful is critical for a functioning democracy. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/24/icc-international-criminal-court-trump-putin-netanyahu

~ Amend the Constitution, changing things and providing clarity where needed. (Examples: State plainly that the U.S. is not a Christian nation and that the President is not above the law. – Dump or rework the 25th amendment because we can’t actually remove a president with it. – Update the 2nd amendment to take into consideration the danger of today’s weapons. – Pass and ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. – Make the Constitution easier to amend as times change. Etc.)

~ Ban multi-level marketing companies.

~ Regulate AI.

~ Regulate social media platforms to limit the harms they cause. Rather than looking at them as publishers versus neutral places that host other people’s content, why not consider them to be the hybrid content structures they are and regulate with that in mind?

~ No changing the names of lakes, gulfs, oceans, or other geographic areas by executive order, or by Google fiat. (Google has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America this week because it has caved to Trump’s childish demands. Have a look at Google Maps to see this for yourself.)

Conclusion of Cleanup on Aisle 47

As everyday Americans protest weekly, write to their legislators, engage in economic boycotts, work to protect the vote and encourage others to vote, monitor what’s happening to immigrants, file lawsuits to stop the Trump regime’s illegal and unconstitutional activities, create clever memes, signs, music, and artwork, and even dress as frogs to save our democracy, we need to look ahead to the steps we can take to rebuild, strengthen and improve U.S. democracy.

Cleanup on Aisle 47 is the start of a checklist of ideas to do just that. There are numerous experts in the various areas I have covered in this series who can flesh out and refine these ideas, many of them only an internet or library search away.

We need to be courageous and bold to save democracy from the wealthy and powerful – to undo the harms they have caused in this country and across the planet. Always, we must keep in mind our highest values and not compromise on them for the sake of getting along. It is through giving a little here and giving a little there that the greedy and corrupt have taken over our government and country.

There will always be such people – those without empathy who want to treat others with cruelty and make them subservient for their own gain. The good among us, those who care about others, fairness, and a country that shares its resources for the good of all, must always RESIST the cruel and corrupt. We must resist loudly, firmly, and peacefully.

Thus ends the Cleanup on Aisle 47 blog series.

---

Please share your ideas for rebuilding, strengthening, and improving democracy, as well as any suggestions for books or online resources that are working in this area.