Articles by Indy

Did California's Open primary make a difference? No question it did. Ballotpedia has credited the reform for taking California from last in the nation with competitive races to first. It will take three or four election cycles to really see the effects of open primary. But, three California Congressional races have special symbolic value that could turn the California reform into a national movement. That these races are even happening is historic. If one or more of the three Open Primary advoc...

Credit: sodahead.com Recent skirmishes between the Republican and Libertarian parties are instructive examples of ballot access fights that too often happen elsewhere too. In Washington, the Libertarian Party claims that the Republican Party should have to run under minority party status, and in turn should be barred from the ballot having failed to make minority party deadlines. In Pennsylvania, the Republican Party is challenging the signatures amassed by the Libertarian Party in an effort to...

The 2012 campaign has largely been about the state of the economy and Republicans and Democrats trading body blows over partisan politics. Despite an ongoing war in Afghanistan and clamoring calls for intervention in Syria's increasingly nasty civil war, the focus of candidates Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney on foreign policy and defense has been light. This may be smart politics in a tight election contest where every misstep hurts and voters are concerned about jobs and pocketbook issue...

Photo: Joe Wrinn / Harvard University News There are many factors prospective voters take into account when deciding among candidates. What are their policies? What is their experience in government? Are they a charismatic leader? Will they be knowledgeable in all aspects of the job? Voters ask these questions in an effort to ascertain how competent the candidate will be in office. One means of judging a candidate's capability is to analyze their educational background. For the most part voter...

Traditionally, in American politics, questions of budget deficits and national debt were seen as purely domestic issues that only had ancillary effects on foreign policy.  The situation today is different: debt has become a strategic problem not only because of the magnitude of American debt ($14 trillion), but because our major allies and adversaries are interlocked economically and have their own severe systemic debt and monetary issues. Even China, which enjoys high GDP growth rates, has a cr...

Credit: lib.utexas.edu Ideology is being replaced by realpolitik in the world political arena, with competition and cooperation between frenemies perhaps becoming the norm. The war on terror began on September 11, 2001 in New York City and Washington DC, where teams of terrorists professing a militant brand of Sunni Islamism killed thousands of Americans using commercial airliners, brought down the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and caused roughly $100 billion in direct and indirect e...

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a foreign policy speech to Russia's ambassadors and Foreign Ministry officials that is very much worth reading in context of his dispatch to Syria of a fleet of warships, including a battleship, to the modest Russian naval base in Tartus. Under Putin's hand, Russian support for the bloody regime of Bashar Assad has consistently been more about safeguarding and expanding Russia's strategic place in world than about Syria: ....We are forced to admit that no r...

National defense has yet to become a major campaign issue in 2012 despite the fact that the next president will face a perfect storm of scandal, budgetary crisis and strategic dilemmas that America has not seen in military affairs since the end of the Vietnam War. Despite a major speech on defense issues given at the Citadel in 2011, Governor Romney's strengths as a candidate are not associated with national security, while President Obama's staff prefer to emphasize to the administration's many...

I would like to thank all of you who voted for me in the 2012 primary election. Now in the absence of a third choice however, consideration must be given to the two who have advanced to the general election. I have considered Roger Hernandez since 2010, researching all that I can. It is said experience is the parent of wisdom. Hernandez lacks in experience henceforth lacks in wisdom. I have come to the conclusion that Hernandez is narcissistic, deceptive and has been, and continues to be, unqua...