Instead of giving candidates subsidies for advertising, as we now do, we could establish an online service where they’d be able to present themselves and their policy proposals far more effectively and reasonably than with today’s outrageously expensive 30- and 60-second TV spots. 

For starters, candidates could put their basic stump speeches online, and update them under changing conditions however they saw fit.

A good deal of the blame we currently level at participants in the political process is actually misplaced.  Not all elected officials and candidates are happy with the ultra-condensed politics of the photo op and the 20-second sound bite. Also, virtually all of them still persist in presenting themselves to voters in fairly meaty traditional stump speeches.  In these talks, candidates outline what they’ve identified as the most compelling issues facing us, they explain their positions on them at some length, and they compare and contrast their proposals with those of their opponents.  Aren’t these really the essential ingredients we need to make reasonable election choices?

Moreover, stump speeches can be lively, interesting, and even funny.  The problem is, very few of us have ever heard a stump speech.

We can easily solve this problem just by giving them a proper electronic home.  A free consolidated website could also provide a place for ongoing debate—in both written and pre-recorded audiovisual form.  In addition to giving the candidates all the time and space they need to clearly explain themselves, this would be a far more effective way of exposing and debunking half-truths and fibs and outright lies than anything that’s feasible in today’s televised debates.

If politicians abuse the platform to make demonstrably false statements and not conscientiously correct simple errors, they could be suspended from using the platform—and in extremely cases, permanently expelled from it.