Articles by Joshua Alvarez

The media is a common discussion topic on this website, as it should be. Dissatisfaction with both the political system and the media landscape is entirely related. Followers of IVN want “independent” politicians and media. But that word "independent" is ostentatious and vague, which makes it perfect for political ad campaigns for any party, anywhere (“Want independence from Western pigs? Vote Ba’ath!”) and used car dealerships during the 4th of July (“Celebrate your independence by signing thi...

Georgian voters have re-elected Republican Nathan Deal to be their governor. He won 53 percent of the vote (with 98% of precincts reporting in), defeating Democrat Jason Carter, who only received 44 percent of the vote. Voters also elected Republican David Perdue to the U.S. Senate, who won 54 percent of the vote (with 96% of precincts reporting), defeating Democrat Michelle Nunn. Perdue will replace retiring Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and will be entering a GOP-majority Georgia will a...

The race for control of the Senate may not end on November 4. If none of the candidates hoping to replace retiring Georgia U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) garner 50 percent plus one of the vote, the Peach State will hold a runoff between the top two on January 6, 2015. So far, neither the Democratic candidate, Michelle Nunn, nor the Republican, David Perdue, who holds a slight edge over Nunn, have polled above 50 percent. Part of the reason may be Amanda Swafford, the Libertarian candidate, wh...

For the second time in 6 years, Oregonians will vote on a measure to establish an open, top-two primary system. Measure 90 is an almost exact replica of a 2008 measure that was rejected by 66 percent of voters. Proponents are hoping that today’s general hostility toward the Democratic Party and GOP will translate to passage of the measure. In order to appear on the ballot, supporters of the measure were required to collect 87,213 signatures by July 3. They turned in 140,045 signatures on June 2...

The 2014 midterm elections are less than a month away and the GOP is poised to seize a majority in the Senate, though that would require winning some close races. Some are expected to come down to just a proportionally small amount of votes. RealClearPolitics rates 10 Senate races as “toss-ups” and 7 of them involve Democratic incumbents. The difference between victory and defeat will come down to voter turnout, which in turn depends on voter access laws, which state governments have been keen ...

On July 31, freshman U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) introduced a bill titled, “Open Our Democracy Act,” which was referred to the Committees on House Administration, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Judiciary. The bill proposes the following: * All congressional primaries be open, top-two races. * The candidates that appear in the primary ballot have the option of designating their party preference or declaring no preference at all. * Election Day will be designated a public holiday ...

When the subject of Cuba arises, the immediate associations are communism, missile crisis, and embargo. Obviously, Cuban history goes much farther back than 1959, but so does its relationship with the United States. Taken as a whole, the (ultimately misplaced) popularity enjoyed by Castro’s revolution in 1959 is neither accidental nor a product of Cuban inferiority, as it’s often insinuated. Rather, Castro offered Cubans something the United States, and the corrupt regimes they propped up, long...

Over the last couple of months, I have repeatedly mentioned the recent findings by David Broockman, a UC-Berkeley political science graduate student who has shown that political “moderates” are a statistical fable. Voters who pollsters label as moderate actually have conflicting extreme views that average to a moderate score, but no one would call someone who, for example, believes banks should be nationalized (extreme left) and schools privatized (extreme right) a moderate. Broockman has rein...

According to RealClearPolitics, approximately 13.4 percent of Americans approve of Congress and 77.8 percent disapprove, taking the average of 6 major surveys on congressional approval. Congress’ underwater popularity has served as a fount of political humor and -- regarding the reasoning of those who apparently approve of Congress -- speculation. According to some (questionable) attempts to categorize Congress’ fan base, it is made up of honest-to-goodness optimists, Obama haters, actual clown...