In discussions with an elderly voter in Colorado about Proposition 131, the unsuccessful 2024 ballot measure to create a nonpartisan primary with ranked choice voting (RCV), in the general election, we learned something important. This individual had voted against Proposition 131, casting his mail ballot on the day he received it. A week later, he received a campaign ad mailer that Colorado’s governor and Denver’s mayor had endorsed Proposition 131, which may have influenced his decision.

In his new regular column, Diamond on Democracy, democracy scholar Larry Diamond, acknowledges that “[h]aving won the presidency fair and square, Donald Trump has earned the right to propose, and in many cases to implement, radical new policy directions.” 

Donald Trump's address to Congress last week is the latest in a string of highly partisan moves designed to please his base and needle his opponents.

As I think about Tuesday’s State of the Union address by President Donald Trump and the response of Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan—a former CIA analyst and a rising star in the Democratic Party—I am reminded of the book “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” by John Gray published in 1992.

The heated confrontation in the White House Friday between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, continues to spur debate across the nation as voters are split on the US's support of Ukraine in its war with Russia.

If real, lasting change is to occur, it must come through Congress—not merely through executive orders that can be reversed by future administrations or overturned in court.

Dan and Shawn look at recent polling and explore whether one party is guilty of being out of touch with the majority of Americans or whether either party is speaking to the majority at all?

American elections are becoming less competitive, and the consequences are eroding democracy. As The New York Times journalists Nick Corasaniti and Michael Wines report this week, most congressional and state legislative races in 2024 were effectively decided by low-turnout primaries or weren’t contested at all.

Democrats are taking stock. Some are arguing for a major overhaul in light of growing defections of working-class, Black, and Latino voters. Others want to stay the course. Some want to work with Trump when possible while others advocate for a program of permanent resistance.

Look up oligarch in a dictionary and you may find it defined as “someone who is extremely rich and powerful, especially a person from Russia who became rich after the end of the former Soviet Union.” Oligarchy is defined as “government by a small group of very powerful people.”