On Friday,House Republicans voted to remove Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over past statements made regarding Israel and the US military. This surprised no one, as the run-up to this vote was widely covered in the press the week prior. The day before, House Republicans...
The practice of gerrymandering - that is, drawing congressional districts to either favor candidates from one party or disfavor another - is as old as the district itself. During the very first congressional election after the Revolutionary War, Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, carved the...
In 1950, a report published in the American Political Science review issued a dire warning over the state of politics in America. The nation’s two parties, it argued, were too much alike and got along so well that voters might be inclined to gravitate towards smaller parties with more extreme...
It should be a forgone conclusion that political polarization in America has reached an unhealthy level when the end of a presidential election cycle is marked by an angry mob storming the Capitol, the seat of the Senate President being occupied by a shirtless man in a buffalo headdress carrying a...
To many, the Electoral College could best be described as the appendix of American democracy - a vestigial organ sitting in the nation's body politic that's only noticed for the problems it causes. Given the Electoral College has overruled the popular vote in two out of the last five presidential...
One of the few things Americans of all political stripes can agree on in our 30 year old debate over healthcare is that it’s too expensive. In 2018, healthcare spending in the United States was $10,500 against an OECD average of $3,994. Switzerland, the second highest on the list, came in at...
In 2007, Congress passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, a law designed to curb the influence of lobbyists and slow the “revolving door” of lawmakers cycling from Congress to lobbying firms. Part of the bill prohibited lobbyists from purchasing meals for lawmakers, a meal being...
In a report on the quality of healthcare across Canada’s provinces and territories, the Conference Board of Canada graded the country’s healthcare system against a number of “peer countries”. The scale started with Sweden, the highest rank, and ended with the United States.As with our love of guns,...
When Bravo first launched on cable television in 1980, it was a channel dedicated entirely to the fine arts. At the time, the promise of cable was that networks could rely on subscription revenue to drive their business, meaning they could appeal to niche audiences. The major networks, in contrast,...