If you've got a minute to spare, go read Norman Ornstein's smart essay on why the best way to quell the ideological extremes that dominate our current two-party political system—the system that made Sarah Palin the dimly shining star we see today—is encourage/force more people vote.

How, you ask? By turning ballots into lottery tickets! Or by maybe kinda sorta becoming Australia:

For more than 70 years in Australia, registered voters have been required to show up at the polls on Election Day. While they do not have to vote—they can cast ballots for "none of the above"—a failure to appear incurs a fine of roughly $15. (This fine can be avoided by writing a letter explaining why illness, travel, or another legitimate excuse kept one away.)

...Why would increasing turnout make a difference? It is not that high turnout is a surefire indicator of civic health and democratic values—the former Soviet Union, after all, boasted 98 percent turnouts. The greater impact is on the culture of politicians. Australian politicians of all stripes say that knowing both parties' bases will certainly vote motivates them to focus on those persuadable voters in the middle. They do not emphasize the kinds of wedge issues like guns, gays, or abortion that dominate American discourse. Instead, politicians focus on the bigger questions — like the economy, jobs, and education — that drive the voters in the middle, and they avoid the kind of vicious or vitriolic campaign rhetoric that turns off the persuadable voters.

Of course, mandatory voting has no serious chance of being enacted in the United States, where mandates of any sort are (as you might have noticed) unpopular. Americans rebel viscerally against the idea of taking away the freedom not to vote, even if the consequence is simply a modest penalty or the requirement to write an excuse. So I also favor exploring ways to expand the electorate by using incentives instead of disincentives.

My favorite incentive approach is a "Mega Millions lottery," where one's voting receipt is also one's lottery ticket...

I love bursts of smart wishful thinking like this. It makes me think that if wishes were horses, I'd own a glue factory.