I'm not saying that every decision must be handled by the entire voting populace, just that we need to embrace a more issue-focused mindset and acknowledge that

I'm not saying that every decision must be handled by the entire voting populace, just that we need to embrace a more issue-focused mindset and acknowledge that the world is too complex for one person to know what's best on every policy stance. The test should be on the federal level (knowledge is universal), and wouldn't be designed by politicians. The tests should be very very basic and test a minimal level of understanding. For example you should be able to explain what the Fed does if you were voting on an issue pertaining to monetary policy. The questions would be as objective as possible. Yes we may still need politicians, but again the main idea is that we seek to have people only working on matters they're qualified for rather than some jack of all trades who's supposed to have the country's answers on everything. Military operations would be handled by military personnel, housing policy would be designed by experts in housing policy, energy and climate change issues would be designed by experts in those fields, foreign policy would be dictated by foreign policy experts, etc. Could this new system be a slippery slope? Are there other problems? Of course. But our current system is failing - just look at the presidential "debates", they're a complete laughingstock. We need to try to figure out how to improve this broken system rather than keep perpetuating the status quo. I'd love to hear your ideas on how we could improve things.