How to Fix Congress

"PaulE 926pm - How would such soft revolution be launched to make it work in one election cycle?"

Simple, nobody is allowed to be an incumbent.

AND,

all computer files and emails, contact lists, etc., must be left behind, intact, not scrambled, for use by the next person in office, and positions on committees are drawn from a hat. Positions may be bartered for three weeks after the drawing. Then work begins anew.

AND,

Visiting (lobbying) times with members of Congress will be put into a nation wide lotto, and those who win can barter their time slots on a market that would be across between eBay and the stock markets. Every minute, so purchased, would have to be accounted for and recorded on video with sound and available online. No other contacts between the general public/corporations and the Congressperson would be allowed.
in short, Open Government.  All letters and email would have to be made available before the Congressperson can read them, in a searchable common database for the entire Congress, so that patterns of attempted undue influence would be obvious.

The nationwide lotto issues for free, one entry to each voter who voted in the last Two national elections. Odds are the sloths would not see the future value, and wouldn't sign up for one, if the reward couldn't possibly show up for at least two years.