When you take your oath of office you put on a shock collar. Every time your approval rating drops by 1% you get shocked. Below 50% the voltage goes up.
Just kidding. This is cruel and unusual, but it points at something important: We the people have no way to punish our elected officials in real time for their mistakes.
They’re in service to us, not the other way around, and all we can do when they do something horrible is, “Call our Congress person.” Being on hold and leaving a voicemail is punishment for us.
We should be able to dock their pay, remove their perks and privileges, fire them via vote of no confidence at any time (perhaps over 75% no confidence outside elections and they’re fired), or some other actions that cause them real and immediate consequences. This instant feedback is far better than having to wait until the next election (2 years for Congress, 6 years for Senate).
And… Their should be a way to deliver instant rewards too. Pay bonuses, new perks and privileges, maybe even term extension ahead of an election with 85% voter “full confidence” or something like that.
The policy idea here is instant rewards and punishments for public servants to increase accountability.