Politics: Prospects for Reform?

Mickey Edwards in what, the 70s? Wikipedia file photo

In "How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans," former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards outlines a few specific, but thought-provoking ideas for political reform:

• Break the power of current "party bosses," who control the candidates we see in general elections, and make sure those candidates conform to rigid views. "This tendency toward rigidity—and the party system that enables it—is at the root of today’s political dysfunction."
• Take redistricting out of the hands of congress and put it into commissions that would decide based on communities, not potential political power. For example, Edwards' own Oklahoma district should have remained centered on the urban area where he started his career, not splayed into a mixture of urban and rural constituencies designed to cage him politically, but not help him serve. (Adam asks: how do we know the commissions will act fairly?)
• Allow members of any party to amend a House bill. I can't believe we don't do this already. But it makes sense when you realize that the Congress functions "not as a gathering of America’s chosen leaders to confront, together, the problems we face, but as competing armies—on the floor, in committees, in subcommittees—determined to dominate or destroy."
• Make congressional committees more bipartisan: restore the position of minority vice chairman, who can introduce bills and bring forward experts. 
• Fill committee vacancies by lot, not playing favorites. (I can hear Adam wishing him good luck with that one!)
• Staff the committees with experts, not ideologues picked out by party bosses.

As all of America watches its Congress come closer than ever to stabbing its own constituents in the back by failing to raise the debt ceiling, risking a credit rating downgrade and new economic crises, perhaps the tide will turn towards real structural reform again?