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The States Likely to Gain and Lose House Seats in 2020
Recently, Real Clear Politics extrapolated demographic trends to project which states are likely to gain or lose U.S. House seats in the reapportionment that will occur after the 2020 Census. Their forecast, shown below, has nine states losing one U.S. House seat and six states gaining seats. These are only projections, but given that we are now six years into the decade, many of the demographic shifts of the decade are already well advanced and difficult to reverse.
Overall, we see a reduced n
03 Jan, 2017
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1 min read
The Electoral College is Outdated and Undemocratic
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is now beating President-elect Donald Trump in the popular vote by more than 2 million votes. This is by far the biggest deficit in popular votes by a winning candidate in the history of the country.
But the discrepancy between electoral and popular votes shouldn’t make us question the legitimacy of the election -- the Electoral College is the law of the land. In the words of president-elect Donald Trump, abolishing the Electoral College would make for a “
30 Nov, 2016
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3 min read
5 US Senate Seats Independents Could Determine in 2018
In 2018, 33 US Senate seats, or one-third of the US Senate, will be up for election.
Eight incumbents are Republicans, but each of their states routinely vote Republican and so they are unlikely to face serious competition. At this early date, the following five Democratic incumbents appear to hold the most vulnerable US Senate seats.
#1. Claire McCaskill – Missouri
With Republican candidates winning the state’s races for presidency, governor, and US Senate, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called
14 Nov, 2016
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4 min read
The 2016 Election's Biggest Winner: Gary Johnson and The Libertarian Party?
You may be asking how the Libertarian Party could have won the 2016 election with no seats in Congress and with its presidential candidate finishing in a very, very distant third place behind the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
But in an election year that everyone considers eccentric at the least, it might not be which party technically "won" so much as which party made forward strides, and by that measure it's a great year to be a Libertarian.
For each of the main two political parties
12 Nov, 2016
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4 min read
Sanders-Backed 'Our Revolution' Scores Major Victories on Election Day
In August, just one month after the Democratic National Convention, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced the launch of Our Revolution, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping his progressive movement alive and strong. Among its stated goals are “supporting a new generation of progressive leaders" and "empowering millions to fight for progressive change."
To these ends, Our Revolution backed more than 100 candidates from the school board level to the U.S. Senate between August and Ele
10 Nov, 2016
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4 min read
The Majority Has Spoken (Again and Again): It’s Time To End The Electoral College
Raise your hand if you think that the president of the United States should be elected by the popular vote. Ah, it looks like most of you do. Hands down and know that you’re not alone.
In fact, poll after poll, for quite some time, has shown that most Americans would like to replace the Electoral College delegate system with the popular vote – one person, one vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. Gallup has asked the question since 1944, and a majority has always supported an end to
07 Nov, 2016
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6 min read
All the Tweets and All the Money Still Can't Beat a Good Ground Game
In a 21st century world filled with modern technological marvels that spread information far and wide instantaneously, a campaign's physical ground game is still the surest way for a candidate to win at the ballot box.
During the 2016 primaries, many of the candidates, including Sanders, Trump, and to a degree even Clinton, were forced to accept that their huge rallies and high-tech deliveries were not connecting with the voters in a way that got them to the polls.
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz use
26 Oct, 2016
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4 min read
Independent, Third Party Candidates: Vote Your Conscience; Stick With Us
Why stick with third party and independent candidates in November, if Clinton and Trump have a combined 80% of the electorate in all major polls? In an election season that is anything but usual, one trend is holding up: outside campaigns are losing support in the last months of the race.
The campaigns of Libertarian candidate Gov. Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, independent candidate Dr. Lynn S. Kahn, and Veterans Party candidate Chris Keniston responded to a short question
10 Oct, 2016
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12 min read
The Transpartisan, Grassroots Movement to Overturn Citizens United is Gaining Serious Momentum
In recent years, there have been several top-down attempts to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United. That decision, made in 2010, birthed legal entities known as super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money so long as they do not coordinate with a candidate.
In 2014, Democrats failed to muster enough votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster over a proposed constitutional amendment. And in 2015, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig announced a presidenti
06 Sep, 2016
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5 min read
Political Exclusion Breeds Extremism, and Inhibits Respect
Breaking the Frame of Respect
To solve societal problems, we need civil discourse, and effective reasoning. Reasoning and civil discourse cannot be had without respect.
In order to function with respect, a discourse requires two things: personal dignity, including personal space and freedom from dehumanization (or the devaluation of one's inherent worth), and acknowledgement of the positive attributes in others' positions.
Once the frame of respect has been betrayed, two behaviors are sure to
30 Aug, 2016
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10 min read
