I started thinking about laws, policies and government in terms of the way software is developed. When a typical software project begins it's fairly simple. The program is easy to use and generally easy to understand. At the same time the number of things that it can do is limited. As the program grows, new functions and features are added. The efficiencies of the original system are buried in levels of abstraction and complexity and it becomes increasingly difficult to make changes to the program.
In a similar way government starts out being fairly simple. We started with a declaration of independence, and a constitution, we added a bill of rights, then we slowly added more and more features. In a similar way to software it's easier to add to the system then take away from it. New programs, bills, amendments and initiatives get written into law and it becomes easier to fix the bugs in the system then to re-think the way the system should work.
In software it's typical for a product to go through 5-6 major versions before it's time for a major overhaul. The question is how does the government go through a more major change? As a simple example the tax laws continue to get more and more difficult as revisions and changes get made to close the bugs and loopholes of the previous years changes.
We need a change, that's more fundamental then fixing bugs and making patches. We need bold politicians who can re-architect the mechanics of this country. We need to start again from basic concepts and simple ideas and build the new features needed for USA 2.0.