According to the Constitution, in order to become president a person must meet three requirements. None of these requirements are to belong to a political party. Yet, the two major parties have a stranglehold on the government and no one outside the Republican and Democratic Parties has been elected president in over one hundred and fifty years.

The impact of President Franklin D. Roosevelt dying in office -- then the subsequent revelations that his 'decisions' were often being made by the First Lady while incapacitated -- left a profound mark in our views of the presidency.

What was once considered private health information was now front-and-center in the information that Americans wanted to know about their president -- even more important than their finances.

We won’t know until November if voters in Maine approve the use of ranked choice voting becoming the first state to implement that process state-wide. Whether Maine voters approve Question 5 or not, Nevada could be the first state whose legislators implement such a system when they convene early next year.

Breaking the Frame of Respect

To solve societal problems, we need civil discourse, and effective reasoning. Reasoning and civil discourse cannot be had without respect.

In order to function with respect, a discourse requires two things: personal dignity, including personal space and freedom from dehumanization (or the devaluation of one's inherent worth), and acknowledgement of the positive attributes in others' positions.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has suggested that they will give Gary Johnson or Jill Stein "an inch" if they get close enough to the required 15 percent polling threshold to be included in the presidential debates. However, at least one debate sponsor in Colorado is apparently not so lenient.

Lily Tang Williams is running for U.S. Senate in Colorado. However, she is being excluded from a televised Senate debate because her party's registration missed the mark by 0.023% -- barely a fraction of one percent.

Last week the Illinois Supreme Court rejected an appeal that may have ended the current campaign to reform legislative redistricting. The ruling further illustrated the arduousness of instituting a citizen-led proposal in Illinois.

A new groundbreaking poll released by Quinnipiac University found that a whopping 62 percent of likely American voters believe that Libertarian presidential candidate and former two-term New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson should be included alongside Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in the upcoming presidential debates, which are sanctioned by the Commission on Presidential Debate (CPD).

Many of us will feel stuck with a “lesser of two evils” choice on this year’s presidential ballot. It’s familiar and discouraging – we yearn for more choices. Some of us will look to the Green or Libertarian parties (Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, respectively), and maybe the late entry of an independent candidate.

Before a crowd in his home start of Vermont and speaking to supporters attending more than 2,600 watch parties across the country, Senator Bernie Sanders announced on August 24 the launch of "Our Revolution." The newly created organization seeks to institutionalize the former presidential candidate's progressive movement and develop a grassroots network whose three

“Those who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts.”  ― Henry David Thoreau, “Slavery in Massachusetts”

It was disappointing to read that Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is spending public money urging voters to leave the United Independent Party ahead of an important registration deadline.