We need to quarantine Washington: Nothing in; nothing out.

We’ve all seen great people head off, newly elected to D.C., and what happens? They change. After a few months or a couple years, you start to think: “What happened to them?” They were infected with the disease of corruption.

No one in and no legislation comes out — infected legislation spreads across our country like… well, a plague.

So what do we do? We stop spreading the disease. It’s time to reconnect with our founding principles. Fifty-six men signed the original documents that every American patriot still believes in with all their heart over 200 years later. Fifty-six men changed the world forever. We currently have 535 people in the United States Congress. You can’t tell me that we don’t have 56 committed patriots there who understand that there’s an illness in D.C. and would like to do something about it, but just don’t know how or what to do.

Let’s offer them the way out.

First of all, we all demand daily to our representatives that they pass nothing until the corruption is stopped.

Second, we let them know that we all make mistakes and we offer them the chance for redemption. If they’ve been part of the problem, come forward, let us know about it and we’ll be forgiving. Now, if you’ve broken the law, obviously, you’ll have to pay for that. But if it’s something that has dishonored you, your office or your family, then confess it, deal with it and we will stand behind you if you help us clean up this mess.

We need to offer a way out to members of Congress. Now we know that some of these people are like Typhoid Mary, just spreading corruption wherever they can. Others, can and will find redemption and feel good about themselves and their country again. Still others have maybe not yet been fully infected.

I had this idea the other night, while reading Thomas Jefferson. Let’s begin the search for the 56 men and women who help us re-found America: Patriots, “refounders” willing to put their nation ahead of themselves and their party affiliation. Stop identifying yourselves as Republicans and Democrats; start identifying yourselves as Americans.

Republicans should begin the cleanup of the GOP and the Democrats clean out the corruption in the Democratic Party. We all know it’s there — so, admit it: Clean up the mess and let’s move on.

So, we stop talking about any policies or legislation passing — a total quarantine. We get Democrats to focus on fixing the Democratic Party and Republicans to focus on the Republican Party. Come out, find a microphone and purge the disease. Come out to CNN, if you’re more comfortable there — it doesn’t matter, just do it and restore your own party.

As for what you can do: You need to apply the pressure on Congress that enforces the quarantine. And, reach out to your neighbor with facts — not with emotion, not with anger, with facts. Don’t worry about the game players — those stuck in the right vs. left rut — forget them and move on. Talk to the reasonable ones.

We can’t seem to agree on anything anymore in this nation. But the one thing on which all reasonable Americans can agree is that we don’t want corruption in our government. In nearly every poll taken for the past several years, it is the No. 2 concern on the minds of the people.

Let’s stop thinking about it and do something about it.