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Congress has had abysmally low approval ratings– which have averaged well below 40%– since the 1970s, years before the first millennial was even born yet. Since 2008 Congress' approval ratings have averaged below 20%, dipping as low as the single digits. Yet paradoxically, according to OpenSecrets: "Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. With wide name recognition, and usually an insurmountable ad

This is my post-election column where I analyze the impact of independent voters who came out in force last Tuesday, almost 34 million of us. Huge. The stats and takeaways are at the end of this column, dear reader, so if you prefer to cut to that chase, scroll on down. Suffice it to say that independents are swinging between cycles of disruption and cycles of stabilization, all the while searching for systemic changes that will take us to new ground. Independent rather than partisan ground. Th

Political debate online is all too often far too cancerous to be of any good to anybody, including most of all, the fully grown adults who are probably very nice, normal, intelligent, and rational people in their daily offline lives, but bring the online discussion down to the level of intellectual rigor and emotional effusion of a toddler. Sociologists have studied the phenomenon of online debate and how the medium can incline us toward this nasty outcome, but the good news is it doesn't have

In a Monday appearance on Fox and Friends, Hillary Clinton's former chief strategist said: "Do not underestimate Hillary’s positioning to run again. Clintons never stop until they get where they want to go." Mark Penn, a Democratic pollster and the chief strategist for Clinton's failed 2008 bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, was following up on an op-ed written for the Wall Street Journal Sunday with another Democratic pollster named Andrew Stein. The title of the piece was

The Arizona Senate race is a real nail biter. Over 48 hours after the polls closed in Arizona: "Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema leads Republican Rep. Martha McSally by only a few thousand votes in a race that is too close to call." This election is pivotal as Republicans try to hold onto their majority in the U.S. Senate, and the Republican Senate win in Florida is now in jeopardy as new ballots appear in Broward County, sending the close Senate race there tumbling toward a manual recount, with

Attorney General Jeff Sessions' resignation from his post this week at the behest of the president was a cherry on top of another string of wins for the marijuana legalization movement in America. Although he was not asked to resign because of his overtly hostile position toward the marijuana legalization movement in the United States and the consumption of the plant itself (as a U.S. Senator he once said, "Good people don't smoke marijuana.")–– His removal from office does pave the way for a

The New Mexico Senate Race this year was by far the best chance the Libertarian Party has ever had of getting a seat in the U.S. Congress, and in the Senate no less. In this race the nation's third largest party, still dwarfed by the two main political parties in the United States, had a perfect storm: A highly credible candidate, with nearly universal name recognition in his state, and a record of actually winning statewide election twice– to New Mexico's governor's office– before stepping as

Elisabeth Rosenthal accomplishes the seemingly impossible: she’s created a digestible and oftentimes heartfelt guide to the American health care system. Statistical analyses, facts, and financial data litter the book, but with Rosenthal’s ability to seamlessly weave personal accounts and her sharply written “Economic Rules of the Dysfunctional Medical Market” throughout the book, readers can feel emotionally invested in the political football that is our country’s health system. Health care is

San Diego, Calif.- It appears City of San Diego voters made history last night. Never before have two city council incumbents lost on an election night. In fact, the last time an incumbent lost was 1992. San Diego Councilwomen Lorie Zapf and Myrtle Cole are both trailing in election returns. Election Results District 2 This comes down to party registration and a huge get-out-the-vote effort by labor. The district has shifted toward Democrats, who now enjoy a roughly 10-thousand vote adva

Many political commentators today are perplexed by what seems to be the increasing polarization of the two party system in America, and the rising tensions that have accompanied a rhetorical arms race of inflammatory cross fire. It is my contention that the Republican and Democratic Parties are not in fact drifting further apart than ever before, but over recent decades have actually become more and more like each other, and that today they are nearly indistinguishable from each other in terms