Outside the Beltway

Most high-income Congressional Districts are Democratic and low-income Districts are Republican.

Many in the Global South see the war very differently than we in the West.

A pending Supreme Court ruling could be more impactful than many realize.

Anger over COVID lockdowns has activated myriad frustrations.

A surprising factoid in a bad election for the party.

A bit of a rant, I expect.

A thought inspired by the PA Senate race.

A lot of folks who study democracy have sent an open letter to Congress.

A repeat of 1860 can’t happen. But something even worse could.

Assuming they had the votes, should Democrats carve out yet another exception?

How long can the unsustainable be sustained?

Has the Internet made us more selfish?

The much-anticipated escalation has happened. Now to see how the United States and its allies respond.

It seems that some Americans are relocating to be with people who share their social and cultural views.

Hesitancy is a complex phenomenon largely immune to facts.

Representatives Choosing Their Voters Rather than Vice Versa, Chapter 412.

A piece in The Atlantic inspires thoughts.

Women are increasingly dominating American higher education.

Whataboutism about a visit to Whataburger (and other tales of obfuscation).

The reaction to the pandemic has long since been about much more than the pandemic.

How well do single-seat districts lead to representation? (And of what?)

Our insistence on relying on an 18th Century understanding of electoral systems is our ongoing bane (if one values representative government).

Yes, partisanship is real. And it influences more than just voting behavior.

A mind-boggling statistic.

Legitimacy hangs in the balance.

A defense of the indefensible.

There are different, and not equally good, reasons to talk about labels.

If the goal is to change politics, not just vent frustration, messaging is important.

Republicans are half as likely to take the outbreak seriously.

The Republicans are playing a different game.

Not surprisingly, AOC is getting behind Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Trying to nail down some basics about a very complicated situation.

He could lose the popular vote by an even larger margin in 2020—and still coast to re-election.

Scot Peterson, the school resource officer who hid from fire during last year’s school shooting in Florida has been charged criminally. The legal basis for those charges seems flimsy.

The President unveiled some incoherent ideas yesterday that have no chance of becoming law.

The consolidation of Super Tuesday makes the current system even more broken than before.

It was only a matter of time before Trump’s rhetoric against the press would lead to something violent. Last night in El Paso, it happened.

More than any recent President, Donald Trump displays a tremendous amount ignorance about the world. Even worse is the fact that he seems proud of it.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is the latest Democratic entrant into the 2020 race for President.

Trump continues to struggle at major international meetings.

Some examples from 2018 of the problems with single seat districts.

Last week, the Washington State Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. The latest in a string of victories for opponents of capital punishment.

Just when I thought political humor was dead.

Madison was right about politicians and ambition. He just didn’t see the how it would all play out.

President Trump is touting his Photo Op Summit as the end of the North Korean nuclear threat. Reality is quite different.

When “reasonable suspicion” and free speech collide.

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

Wisconsin-Stevens Point is shuttering 13 majors, including English, history, political science and sociology while expanding more job-oriented programs.

A Federal Court in North Carolina has issued a stinging ruling against the partisan gerrymandering undertaken by the Republican legislature in that state.