Occupy.
The failure of the Occupy movement has been that it is primarily been driven at an emotional level, and (if my own experiences have shown anything) has lacked serious thought.
So, here, we're all designers/engineers/entrepeneurs, let's talk about this.
Goal:
Fix what is broken with the US federal government.
Constraints:
Any proposed solution cannot disrupt current economy significantly (avoid riots, breaking public services, hurting people. etc.).
Any proposed solution must be straightforward in implementation and simple in explanation (average Joes and Janes need to be able to get it--no GNU cat() implmentations, please).
Any proposed solution must gracefully integrate or deprecate existing systems where possible (see defense, messaging [postal service], FCC, IRS, etc.)--this need not include existing legislative organs, however (those are command mechanisms, which probably would need to be replaced wholesale anyways).
Any proposed solution must allow active participation by the governed and allow for expression of their will. This implies any solution must allow for equal, open, and easy access to the functioning of the government.
Suggested starting point:
1. Identify what is actually wrong with the government.
EDIT: Updated example list of existing systems example. Added constraint for "expression of governed's will".
I think you're missing the point of the Occupy movement.
Identify and visualize the "broken wheels". And no vagueness either: Name names, quote figures and compare track records to campaign platforms then get that information out there in clever, "viral" ways. Large, detailed infographics might seem popular with us nerds but general population needs very specific, dramatic examples of just how fucked up things are.
Public financing of elections would be a definite step in the right direction and meets all of your constraints.
Everyone who pushed forward the meme that the Occupiers had/have no clear agenda did nothing but expose their own ignorance, ineptitude or intellectual dishonesty.
[1] http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstre... "Beginning from one simple demand -- a presidential commission to separate money from politics"
Feel free to blame "the media," but I've personally asked more than a few people at Occupy to be specific about what they were demanding or what success looks like and I never heard anything like that. I heard a lot about jobs and employment. A bit about the banks having too much power. And one person talked a lot about middle east politics.
You've been looking for information, yet never read the original call to Occupy? Or were you just keeping an eye out for more background information in what is provided to you by the press?
You will have a difficult time convincing them otherwise.
Cities and localities have issues, too, but are far more representative of and responsive to their own residents' needs than Congress. (None of the cities blessed with Occupy camps proposed censoring the internet, for example.)
Mostly because internet regulation has been federalized. When they can, cities attempt to ban things left and right; many of the Supreme Court precedents on film censorship involve municipal statutes. Not to mention their love of "free speech zones".