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Dear Reader, The poet Hart Crane (1899-1932), a favorite of mine, famous for intricate works like “The Bridge” and “For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen” wrote a four-line poem that was never published in his short lifetime, titled “To Earth.” I reprint it here. In its four simple lines (forming three sentences) it speaks (to me) about beauty and loss, about caring and responsibility, and most of all about tenderness. Someday, the world will have more of that. My best wishes for a Happy New

Shortly after the U.S. midterm elections last month, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of U.S. adults from November 7th - 13th to find out what voters would say about why they voted for one party's candidate over another. The interesting thing about this survey is that the question was completely open-ended. You might think this would lead to a wide variety of answers, but the Pew Research Center got mostly the same answers back from a substantial percentage of voters. The question Pe

Among the many moments of President Bush’s life celebrated last week, I have a particular reason to focus on November 3, 1992, when President Bush delivered what to me were the most important words of his presidency: “The people have spoken, and we respect the majesty of the democratic system.” When I heard those words I broke into tears – because I had returned that day from working on democracy in Africa, where people were literally dying to hear words like those from their leaders. I watched

The 2018 midterms ended up being the biggest year in political and election reform in half a century, yet these efforts to unrig the elections and political process got mostly overlooked by traditional and mainstream media outlets. New voting methods were put to use and approved for the first time in US history, gerrymandering reform passed in a handful of states, anti-corruption measures were adopted throughout the country, and the momentum for this movement reached new heights. Though 2019 i

Oftentimes as citizens we say things like “someone should really do something about X, Y, or Z,” or we wonder how some big achievement in history happened, almost as if it happened by magic. But change does not happen magically. It happens when someone (or lots of people) take the initiative to “be the change they want to see in the world” and stand up. In most cases, it is just regular citizens caring enough to not take ‘no’ for an answer. Take Katie Fahey, for example. Katie is a 28-year-old

AUGUSTA, MAINE - US Rep. Bruce Poliquin and the Maine Republican Party have raised yet another concerns with the election in Poliquin's district. Specifically, they report they have spoken to over 15 people in Maine's 1st Congressional District who say they received ballots for the wrong district. Not much was made of this issue prior to Poliquin's lawsuit against ranked choice voting and his request for a recount after he lost the election to Democrat Jared Golden. Poliquin is also asking the

Writing for the Santa Fe New Mexican, Richard Block, a co-founder of Santa Fe Public Radio, avers: "Open primaries are nuts." Block begins his piece by saying: "Every year the subject of open versus closed primary elections comes up, and every year I am bewildered beyond comprehension that there is such mind-numbing ignorance concerning the only — yes, the only — purpose for primary elections. The one and only purpose of a primary is for the members of a political party — a private club — to s

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is leaning strongly toward running for president in 2020 as a third-party candidate -- the wisest course for him. But if he does, he should make systemic political reform part of his agenda. That’s because, out of sight of most of the media, there’s a growing movement around the country actively working to “unrig” a system that now works for the Republican and Democratic Parties, their donors and affiliated special interests, rather than the American people. The movement

SAN DIEGO, CALIF - One of the most prominent arguments against ranked choice voting, outside its complexity, is that voters end up getting multiple votes, so it must violate the constitutional precedent of "one person, one vote." The problem with this argument is a fundamental misunderstanding of ranked choice voting and how it works. Voters don't get multiple votes. They only get a single vote that counts toward the results. First, Some Background The legal precedent of "one person, one vot

Washington, D.C. - On Friday, former President George Herbert Walker Bush died at the age of 94, passing away just months after his wife Barbara. Serving as the 41st President of the United States, Bush’s administration oversaw the end of the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm. As Bush's casket proceeded up the west-facing steps outside the Capitol building cannon fire roared across Washington. Bush called these steps “Democracy’s front porch." As the nation honors its 41st president, it is