Collision Course: Budget Showdown in the Land of Hypocrisy

It is certainly a big week in the land of hypocrisy.

Tax reform, Obamacare, the border wall, and a possible government shutdown are all on the table as Congress wrestles with progress and its 17% approval rating.

Political experts note that if President Trump is able to get through the next two weeks with any semblance of achievement on those three crucial points, defeating him in 2020 will be incredibly difficult.

And, with much at stake, get ready for an overdose of alternative facts.

Get ready for Washington hypocrisy and talk of gridlock.

OPINION: Florida Independents Want Nonpartisan Elections

The Florida Constitution Revision Commission convenes every 20 years. It consists of 36 appointees plus the state attorney general. The governor appoints 15, the Florida Senate president appoints nine, the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives appoints nine, and the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court appoints three.

Never Before: Women Could Run the World

Update: In France's presidential election, Marine Le Pen advances to runoff with Emmanuel Macron. Election to be held on May 7.

 

Female leaders are taking Europe by storm. As never seen before, the "western" powers -- Germany, the United Kingdom, and France -- could all be under female leadership.

The French presidential election's first round will take place Sunday, April 23, which includes Marine Le Pen, the president of France's nationalist movement, the National Front.

Journalism Experts: “We’re Doomed”

Well, maybe.

The landscape of journalism today is covered with sensational headlines like the one above, despite the fact that there seems to be universal consensus in the power of these headlines to destroy civil dialogue.

In light of this, the National Institute of Civil Discourse hosted a panel Tuesday titled, ‘Media, Truth, and the Civility of Facts’ as part of their Sixth Annual Conference on Restoring Civility to Civic Dialogue. The panel featured local news editors and media professionals in a conversation about semantics, truth, and future of journalism.

This Book Will Change The Way You Look at Elections in the U.S.

“Are American elections working well?”

[...]

“All of this said, things could work much better."

The first of these two sentences appears in Chapter 1 of Changing How America Votes, edited by Todd Donovan (published, 2017). The second caps off the end of Chapter 15. In the ellipses are 13 innovative ideas about how to assess our democracy and make elections in the United States better. FairVote’s reform vision is well-represented in the collection.