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After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, many thought his greatest policy initiative, the 1963 Civil Rights Act, would be buried with him. It was not. The man who would take President Kennedy’s failed Civil Rights Act, and bulldoze it through the Congress using tact, skill, intimidation, and cunning was a man who had been one of the most influential elected officials in U.S. history. He was also, for all intents and purposes, a creature of United States politics. If the American e

Anti-BDS resolutions, legislation, and advocacy claim that BDS is the main influence on an 'alarming rise in anti-Semitism.' Is there a rise in anti-Semitism, and is the cause the BDS movement?, Jewish citizens in the U.S. are most likely to be victimized by religious hate crimes. Religious hate crimes make up 17% of all hate crimes, and 60% of those are aimed at Jewish citizens. According to FBI statistics Many polls measuring anti-Semitism have come out recently. Most shocking is the Anti-De

We all know that the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution contains ten amendments. However, it is less well known that the Bill of Rights sent to the states for ratification originally contained 12 amendments. What we know today as the First Amendment – the one enumerating our basic freedoms of religion, speech, and so forth – actually appeared third on this list. The current Bill of Rights contains just ten amendments because the requisite number of states – three-fourths of those in t

When it comes to predicting elections, Moody's Analytics comes about as close to the seers of the crystal ball as we can get. Accurately predicting every election since 1980, with a perfect scorecard in 2012 (including all electoral votes), the Moody's model is pretty hard to beat. The Moody's model relies heavily on economic data, including real income, real housing, and gasoline prices, as well as political data on a state-by-state basis. As of August 27, Moody's has the Democrats winning 32

I have been writing for IVN since the summer of 2014. Though my academic background is in political science, I can confidently say I have learned more about American politics in this one year of researching and writing for you (the readers) than I have in my six years in higher education. Over this time, I must confess, many of my beliefs have remained the same. I still believe that America, despite its history of having committed many unjust actions in its foreign policy, is and can be a posi

ROWAN COUNTY, KY. -- At the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment and were thus unconstitutional. This led to same-sex marriage being legal throughout the country. The majority of places began to make the necessary changes within the coming weeks. There was no more uncertainty about where the law stood. But in Rowan County, Kentucky, elected clerk Kim Davis decided to take a stand and defy the court’s ruling

Of all the silly things that people say after a shooting incident like the one this week in Virginia, the silliest thing of all is, “don’t politicize the tragedy.”Of course, people who say this don’t really mean it. What they mean is something more like, “Don’t say political things about the tragedy that I don’t agree with.” The side that usually responds this way usually has no problem politicizing other tragedies, when the said politicization works better with the beliefs it actually holds. B

While Congress has twice mandated the use of single-member districts (SMD) for electing members of Congress (once in 1842 and again in 1967), state legislatures are at liberty to determine how their representatives will be elected. According to FairVote, at one time, more than half of all state legislators were elected from multi-member districts (MMD). Fifty years ago, more than two-thirds of states had at least some multi-member districts. Today, that number has dropped to just ten: Vermont

In many regards, modern American democracy is dysfunctional -- especially at the national level. Congress is mired in gridlock; passing few laws that align with what the American people want. That gridlock arises from a more fundamental issue: Congress is not an accurate representation of our population. The way in which we elect Congress urgently needs reforming. One very basic reform to the way we currently elect House members is to move from a single-winner system to a multi-winner one. Evid

The first round of the Republican primary debates will be held Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The field of Republican presidential candidates stands at 17, but only 10 will be included in the primetime debate at 9pm ET, while the other seven will compete in an undercard debate at 5pm ET. The 10 candidates who will appear at the prime-time debate are: Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired n