1. Stop the political parties from holding all policy hostage to politics. Both parties now keep score almost exclusively on whether or not they hold the reins. If they hold them, they care about continuing to hold them. If they don't, they care about getting them. Neither party is able to form (much less articulate) a coherent philosophy of governance that allows voters to evaluate what the parties do on specific issues in the light of what the parties claim is government's duty. Result: a scrimmage that makes a bowl of spaghetti look orderly.
2. Full transparency on campaign funding. Without it, we will continue to be (mostly unwittingly) hostages to corporate welfare programs.
3. Roll back the destruction of traditional families. If we did nothing but this, it would eliminate one hell of a lot of "waste, mismanagement, and abuse" because our "leaders" would be left with less busybodying to do and more actual tough decisions to make on tough issues. They'd also have more time to do good work. Right now almost all policy is almost consciously a shot in the twilight, followed by years of cleaning up the results of the law of unintended consequences.
The good news is that all three of these things can be done if citizens will simply steadily hold our leaders feet to the fire ... politely but irrevocably. The one thing all our leaders can't handle is a committed citizenry that does its homework. I've been shocked to learn how much more we know about Family Law than our leaders know. Over time, good information will drive out bad if we make it crystal clear we mean business.