Catherine Rampell: Four big-picture principles for making our democracy work better

Candidates should compete on ideas, not on how effectively they block their opponents' voters from casting ballots.Normally, in a democracy, this goes without saying. Yet it's not so obvious in the United States anymore.From Florida to North Dakota, elected officials seem to increasingly view elections not as a way to tabulate public preferences, but rather as a tool for forcing their own preferences upon the public.They've done this by introducing hundreds of measures making it harder for citiz