Rasmussen Reports released the results of a new survey Thursday that found that a majority of respondents (56%) say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who uses negative attack ads against his or her election rival(s). Further, 60 percent see a major disparity between TV ads that attack opposing candidates than promote the candidacy of the person running for office.

Gallup reports that 16 percent of respondents mentioned some aspect of government as the U.S.'s most dire problem. This includes President Barack Obama, Congress, partisanship, or other political disputes. Thirteen percent named some aspect of the economy, which is down 4 percentage points from the previous year.

In the past two years, no issue has risen above a yearly average of 20 percent. The highest monthly average for government during 2015 was 19 percent, while the lowest was 13 percent.

One can ask what most accurately describes the essence of intelligent, objective, public service-oriented politics. Is it primarily an honest competition among the dominant ideologies of our times, a self-interested quest for influence and power or a combination of the two? Does it boil down to understanding the biological functioning of the human mind and how it sees and thinks about the world? Or, or is it something else entirely?

In a country with almost 320 million citizens, the secret ballot in elections almost ensures one simple fact--that voting fraud will exist, either from voters or the structure itself.

The secret ballot isn't a truly time honored institution in America -- only universally applied for a little over 100 years. In fact, Grover Cleveland was the first U.S. president elected exclusively by the secret ballot.