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Is there any more grotesque example of American “exceptionalism” than our longstanding failure to respond to recurring, murderous violence in our schools? Is the nation that led mankind to the moon and back unable to halt the tragic transformation of children and teachers into the neatly gathered, heedlessly compliant soft targets for cowards wielding weapons of war? THE CURTAIN RISES ON OUR KABUKI THEATER As the smoke and chaos cleared from the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas School, our politici

There are 10 seconds to go, and it’s not looking good. Seemingly untouchable in the first half, the Minnesota Vikings are now down by one point against the New Orleans Saints — and I’m getting nervous. Not because I’m particularly passionate about them winning, but because I know my boyfriend Matt will sink into temporary depression if they lose this playoff game. …Of course, at the time, I didn’t know they would get stomped the following week, but I digress… As you may know, miraculously, a

The people who are calling for Congress to pass legislation to ban a certain model of rifle are just feeding this tragedy to the corrupt political system. And that's not the right thing to do with this, and it's not their place to anyways. Then you've got the #NationalSchoolWalkout, which is being organized by professional feminists and women's movement activists, not students, and they have no idea what they're doing. Putting pressure on large, powerful things that are ruthlessly capable and

Sitting in the audience at the Unrig the System Summit in New Orleans two weeks ago, I couldn’t help but feel that a tide was turning. Speaker after speaker at this high energy and well-attended event made one central point: America cannot engage its massive social and economic problems under the present system. It is too corrupt. Until we change it, reform it, re-engineer it, we will be powerless. The conference’s main organizer, Josh Silver of Represent.Us, echoed this point throughout the w

The flowing tide of income inequality has been garnering attention in most every country on earth. Aside from being an “American” issue, income inequality has increased dramatically around the globe over the past 30 years or so. In response, policy makers have proposed a myriad of ideas in order to curb the issue. In the United States, programs to provide temporary windfalls of cash to middle and working class families seem to be the most popular amongst Democrats and Republicans. More specifi

Remember 2017? I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the country was in somewhat of a challenging place. People were angry, sad, frustrated. Those on the left were upset either because they felt they had lost all political power nationally, or because they felt their own party had played a part in losing that power. Those on the right were angry that those on the left often lumped them all together in unflattering terms. It often felt that we were too divided to recover from whatever was aili

In this new series, Independent OGs, writers at IVN News will chronicle the lives and exploits of independents throughout history – or as we are calling them: Independent O.G.s (short for Original Gangstas). Of course George Washington was THE Independent OG of all American history, and it would seem that every president since has departed further and further from the example and precedent that Mr. Washington set. To begin with, George Washington was in fact the only president in United States

When Pat Tiberi finally got around to resigning after 17 years in office representing our district, he had more than six million dollars in his campaign account. Had he chosen to ride things out indefinitely, he could easily have financed another four hotly contested races to retain his seat without raising another dime. And he hasn't had a hotly contested race for more than a decade. Why? Because he had six million dollars in his account. For that reason, he has quietly sat on the Ways and Me

Hello fellow independent voters! This is your weekly Independent Thought Alarm: Hashtag Russian Bots Edition. In case this is your first time reading Independent Thought Alarm: These are thoughtful missives about controversial subjects with some thoughts that are so novel, independent, and outside the mainstream of acceptable opinion, that repeating them might trigger a call to security to have you escorted off the premises! Now a lot of people are saying a lot of things about Russian "bots" i

Note: The author of this article is Emily Matthews. Emily has worked in a vast array of jobs in the political arena and strives to find common ground across party lines. As the one year anniversary of the 2016 presidential election passes into history, an election people will continue to analyze, critique, and study for generations to come, I, a responsible voter, reflect on what was one of the most exhausting yet meaningful years of my life. My journey certainly wasn’t an easy one, nor one I