Despite strong showings in public opinion polls, Geert Wilders (who the press have nicknamed the "Dutch Trump") and his Freedom Party didn't have the election day they were hoping for Wednesday.

According to CBC News, after 95 percent of the vote was counted in the Netherlands, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's VVD Party (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) won 33 of the 150 seats in parliament. That was enough for Rutte to secure a third term as prime minister.

It happened last month. I officially changed my voter registration from Democrat to Independent. When I was younger, I identified as a conservative Republican. Over the course of a few years, my views changed and I felt more inclined to the Democratic Party. Now, as I sit and watch the bitter anger sans solutions on the left, and gut wrenching gloating by those on the right, I can’t help but think, “What has happened to my country? Can we really call ourselves a democracy?”

Two law students from the University of Kentucky have embarked on a grassroots campaign to bring direct democracy to the bluegrass state. Vince Taormina and Ryan Mosley are the co-founders of the Kentucky People’s Alliance - a fledgeling effort to amend the state’s constitution to allow for voter-backed initiatives and referenda.

Today’s parliamentary elections in the Netherlands are attracting an unusual amount of global interest, and one man is responsible: Geert Wilders.

Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are planning on moving forward with the GOP's Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan (still officially not released in full).

This week meet the party whose mantra is “good ideas don’t have to be mandatory.”

Host T.J. O’Hara is joined by the Libertarian National Committee Chair Nicholas Sarwark. The two discuss the Libertarian Party’s core principles; where the party stands in relation to Trump’s economic policies, healthcare, the Dakota Access Pipeline, the U.S. military, and immigrant vetting; and what’s next for the Libertarian Party.

The American Health Care Act (AHCA) has sparked a fierce debate online, in the media, and among policymakers: Is health care a right all people are entitled to?

https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/841049916113739780

https://twitter.com/mitch_huested/status/841761199922462720

https://twitter.com/activist360/status/841446665127153664

Former Senator Gary Hart, who co-chaired the United States Commission on National Security, spoke last Friday at a luncheon of The Denver Forum.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, in introducing the senator, said, “Gary Hart is one of our wisest public servants.”

No thoughtful person would challenge that.

No one.

Gary Hart served the people of Colorado and America for 12 years in the United States Senate. He’s the author of 21 books, holds degrees from both Yale Law and Yale Divinity, and a Ph.D from Oxford in England.

On Tuesday, March 14, WikiLeaks announced over Twitter that it had contacted major tech companies in the U.S. to help protect consumers from CIA malware:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/841657897734033408

Privacy advocates have generally come from two directions: (1) libertarians, and (2) liberal Democrats. But on March 7, WikiLeaks’ data dump revealed some of the surveillance techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that even George Orwell couldn’t dream up. And Democrats have remained largely silent.