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Last week, the Boston Globe reported that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush smoked marijuana as a teenager at prep school. The report resulted in Sen. Rand Paul, a potential presidential rival to Bush, replying, "This is a guy who now admits he smoked marijuana but he wants to put people in jail who do." The exchange may indicate more than a moment of intra-party politics, but a potential opening to alter the coalitions of both parties. Following the 2012 elections, stories circulated about wha

Vote Hemp, a major grassroots hemp advocacy group, on Thursday announced the introduction of complementary bills in the U.S. House and Senate, S. 134 and H.R. 525, titled the " Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015," with support on both sides of the political aisle. The Act would remove federal restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp, the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis. “With bi-partisan support in the Senate and House, we are eager to see 2015 be the year Congress

On Thursday, January 15, oral arguments were made before the California State Appeals Court in San Francisco in the case Rubin v. Bowen. Third parties continue to challenge the nonpartisan, top-two open primary in the state, claiming that the system violates the association rights of political parties and disenfranchises third-party voters in the general election. Richard Winger, who runs the site Ballot-Access.org, wrote a post on the oral arguments, implying that third parties were poorly re

Polls suggest young voters’ preferences, in regards to both candidates and policies, have become more socially liberal in the past 15 years. Millennials: The Politically Unclaimed Generation, a report released in July by Reason-Rupe, a Libertarian public policy think-tank, found that “a majority of millennials, 53 percent, would support a candidate who described him or herself as socially liberal and economically conservative.” Only 48 percent of young adults between the ages of 18-29 voted fo

On Tuesday, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will face a challenge from a small handful of Republican lawmakers who are dissatisfied with his leadership as speaker, demanding that a more principled conservative lead the GOP in the House. U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is one of a few Republican lawmakers who believe they would make a better speaker than Boehner. Most politicos agree that while approximately 17 Republicans will vote against Boehner, and it is still not enti

On Wednesday, December 10, Congress passed a bill called the "Intelligence Authorization Act for 2015." Not very many people have heard of this bill, much less its passage since the media's main focus is on the CIA torture report. However, the Act contains language that U.S. Representative Justin Amash (R-Mich) calls "the most egregious sections of law" he has encountered during his time in Congress. "It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every Amer

The announcement this week that the officer who killed Eric Garner would not be tried for homicide has further fueled public debate as to the appropriate level of force police officers use while in perceived danger. In 2014 alone, over 496 individuals have died in incidents with law enforcement officers, some of whom did not posses a weapon. As the year comes to a close, instances of possible excessive force on the part of law enforcement officers have shocked the country one after the other. V

With Thanksgiving upon us, it's time to reflect on the culinary embodiment of this American tradition -- the turkey. The turkey's ascendency to fame has its humble origins as far back as the First Thanksgiving in 1621. In 1789, when a group of congressman had a banquet in honor of a Thanksgiving celebration, they realized the chef had put no turkey on the table. Alexander Hamilton said, "No Citizen of the United States should refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day." However, it wouldn't be unt

Debate over states' rights and the rights of the people goes as far back as the 18th century. Today, that political discussion is alive and well in the form of a struggle over gerrymandering. This term, the Supreme Court will hear Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, an appeal brought to the court by the Arizona State Legislature to challenge their loss of redistricting power to an independent redistricting commission (IRC). When Alexander Hamilton wrote Fe

On Sunday, November 9, former congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) published a post on The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity's website, discussing the political ramifications of the 2014 midterm elections. Ron Paul made it clear before the results came in on Tuesday that he believed that no matter who secured control of the Senate on election night, nothing was going to change because the major parties have a monopoly on the U.S. political process. "Yes, power shifted, I wrote. But the philoso