The status quo directly benefits corporate Democratic and Republican leadership (1%), but falls short of serving the real needs of individuals who make up the other 99%. Third parties threaten the establishment by appealing to the actual needs of constituents of both major parties.

Two private corporations, state and federal governments actively deny equal access to benefits which serve the two major parties' campaigns.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, took the national stage for the second time during a CNN town hall event Wednesday night. Polling near the 15% threshold to qualify for the fall presidential debates, Johnson and Weld made the case that they are the best alternative to the two broadly unpopular major party tickets.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF.- Ray Lutz and a group of supporters affiliated with Citizens Oversight held a news conference at the County Registrar’s office in San Diego Wednesday claiming that the 2016 June Primary election was “rigged.”

Bernie Sanders had a great run. He exceeded every expectation, mobilized millions, and changed the political conversation. He made the word revolution fashionable again.

Now he’s focused on getting Hillary Clinton elected and forming a new grassroots organization, Our Revolution.

My question for Bernie is an ontological one: “Is this a “what” revolution or a “how” revolution?”

How he answers it has everything to do with whether Bernie 2.0 orients toward remaking the Democratic Party or toward partnering with diverse Americans to remake the country. Big difference.

There seems to be an axiom in modern politics, that to win a general election you have to win over the moderates, but to win in the primary you have to 'be the best party member' to have a chance.

Historically this has been very true in Kansas politics, a conservative stronghold in both national and state politics.

The Republican and Democratic primaries this year reminded many of an episode of Dysfunctional Family Feud and although the path to the resulting nominations ended differently, the long lasting effects may be largely the same. As Ed Morrisey of HotAir and The Week recently pointed out, “the deep divisions running within both parties at what are supposed to be unity-fests suggest that the wheels may be coming off the much-derided two-party system.”

Green Party signature coordinators across the country are reporting an influx of Bernie Sanders supporters to the Greens' campaign. How far the new momentum will take the party in the 2016 election is yet to be seen. The first order of business is to get the Greens recognized on state ballots, or at least to get Jill Stein, the presumptive presidential nominee, recognized as an independent presidential candidate.

After a setback on legislative redistricting, reform advocates may make term limits in Illinois another of its goals.

So the conventions are finally behind us now. Thanks be to God, humanity, or whatever deity you prefer. Both parties have finished making their cases for why their anointed candidate should be the next president of the United States of America. Yet as I write this — just under a hundred days from Election Day— we remain very, very far from united.

It’s been an odd few weeks as the partisans tried desperately to explain why we should use “least worst logic” to ignore all the deep flaws within their candidate.

How messed up is that?