As is the nature of a federal republic, all too often major presidential elections come down to just a handful of states. This year, it's beginning to look like ten states will make or break the presidential bids for the White House:

The Democrats have a slight lead in the secure electoral votes. Being able to consistently claim California is definitely a major boost.

“The land of the free and the home of the brave.” This is where Americans are told they live. Unfortunately, this is only partly true. “Freedom” is a broad term that does not simply reflect daily mundanities such as choice of occupation and housing options.

In any free society the ability to choose one’s leaders is a hallmark of true liberty. Americans do not have this particular brand of freedom. Voters have been systematically brainwashed into hitching their wagons to one of the frighteningly dominant political parties.

In the aftermath of the departures of both U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio from the Republican presidential primary contest, the public’s attention is now beginning to shift toward a general election race between real estate mogul Donald Trump and the likely Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

There is little doubt that the major national parties have, on the whole, behaved atrociously this election season.

Let’s be clear here. Major-party primaries in the US are absurd.

Parties in most countries select their nominees privately and pay for it on their own dime. That’s not surprising either considering that political parties are private organizations.

In the US, however, parties do their primaries publicly. That may sound nice, but as private organizations, US parties get to make their own rules. These rules conveniently include who gets to vote and how those votes are counted.

Do we think it’s just "happenstance" that we’ve had just two parties (that have achieved representation in our government) for 200+ years? Do we think it's just by chance that the Greens, Libertarians, and Socialists just haven’t caught on yet?  That only once in a blue moon does an independent get elected?

North Carolina’s HB 2 law—also known as the “bathroom bill”—has stirred the pot of national controversy for the past few weeks. This particular piece of legislation has catapulted itself into a topic of debate among the presidential candidates as well.

The Political Science Department of San Diego State University hosted a panel on Thursday, March 28, 2016, to critique the presidential election. Speakers Bill Van Auken, leading member of the Socialist Equality Party, and Paul Street, author of They Rule: the 1% Versus Democracy, discussed how America’s political system fails to be a democracy, the faults of the parties and candidates, and young people's growing interest in socialism.

Ever since Cruz's speech where he shamelessly set up the scene from the 1986 film Hoosiers, I haven't been able to get the movie out of my mind.

I hate it when that happens. Now whenever the candidate does anything, I associate it with the rest of the movie.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that if she made the presidential primary rules, she would do away with open primaries that allow independent voters to participate in taxpayer-funded elections. Speaking on "MSNBC Live" Monday, Wasserman Schultz said she believes that the Democratic nominee should be chosen by Democrats and Democrats only.