After the citizens of Maine voted ‘yes’ to establish Ranked Choice Voting in the state, the legislature is now working on a bill that would introduce statewide open primaries to the electoral process.

Benjamin Disraeli, one of Britain’s greatest prime minsters, once referred to his climb to the top of parliamentary power in England as the “long greasy pole.”

What Mr. Disraeli achieved then, Maureen Dowd has achieved today -- not in politics, but in journalism as a columnist for The New York Times.

Before you conclude that’s a weird pairing, Disraeli and Dowd, read on:

Since Ms. Dowd became an op-ed columnist for The Times in 1995, she consistently has been the bane of presidents – as in Clinton, Bush 43, Obama, and now, Trump.

Five days after its stunning defeat in U.S. District Court, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to clarify and reconsider her order. Four days later the judge  responded - and not in a way that would make the FEC very happy.

President Trump has employed people, had companies set up with retirement plans and many people employed by him are living off his companies' retirement packages. Certainly, he has kept these things in mind while settling into the White House, but his tax plan is what people nearing retirement should really consider and base their expectations on.

In our mission to "rebuild the middle ground" of United States politics, we are obviously fighting a losing battle. Pew lays out a pretty horrid landscape -- and that was before the election. The left and right hate each other, and they may be caught in a downward spiral of distrust that tears the country apart.

The state of media and journalism in the United States is in a dismal place. Trust in media hit an all-time low during the 2016 presidential election and it has not recovered.

The latest Trust Barometer report from Edelman offers a stark picture of Americans' confidence in today's mass media organizations. Edelman, a global communications firm, published their 2017 report last month and found the 2016 election likely had a damaging effect on the public’s trust in mass media. Their report surveyed over 700 voters; including independents.

For many Americans, it's tempting to conclude that Congressional action on every issue will fall victim to partisan gridlock and dysfunction.

On November 8th 2016, Maine became the first state to adopt Ranked Choice Voting as their process to elect state representatives. Now, the citizens’ initiative that passed with over 400,000 “yes” votes, the 2nd highest in Maine’s history, is being challenged by legislators.

On Monday, a bipartisan group of Virginia Senators voted against a bill on the floor to effectively close the state’s primary elections. It was the second time in less than 12 months that an effort to close Virginia’s primaries had made it to the floor.

The 29 to 11 vote on Monday, however, was much broader than the 21 to 19 defeat in last year’s legislature that largely broke along party lines, and was only successful when two Republicans joined a unified Democratic opposition.