The solution is to ban political parties so that people have to be educated on the actual people and issues they vote on. Things like straight ticket voting are

The solution is to ban political parties so that people have to be educated on the actual people and issues they vote on. Things like straight ticket voting are an absurd perversion of democracy. You can't prevent people in the US from ganging up, but there is no reason elections should be required to promote parties or ballots print party next to candidates. Some offices (most judicial races for instance) do not use party affiliation. George Washington was right when he warned us about political parties.