In 1971 the 26^th amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. Since that time, critics periodically call for returning the voting age to its original level or raising it higher than before. Today these calls are increasing in frequency and their message poses a grave threat to Independents and the country as a whole.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran this headline across their front page yesterday:

According to the latest from Gallup, most Americans didn't think the last jobs report was that bad. Let's recall last week's jobs report: For the month of May, 69,000 jobs were created, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.2%.

In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to embrace collective bargaining for their public sector unions. 53 years later, the voters of Wisconsin rebuffed public unions when the attempted recall of Governor Scott Walker fell desperately short of its goal.