Partisan Elections: Not All Voters are Created Equal

A Texas voter went to his local polling location to vote in the most recent primary election. As he waited in line, he had a decision to make. He knew who he wanted to support in the first stage of the voting process; he read the voter guides from various local newspapers and educated himself on the candidates. However, the biggest decision he needed to make was, what races would he have the most meaningful participation in?

Texas has an open partisan primary system.

Data Wars: Major Parties Fight for Total Dominance ahead of 2016

Most voters may not notice it, but the 2016 presidential election is already underway. Aside from the early announcements from Republicans like Jeb Bush, the national Republican and Democratic parties have been charting the course for 2016 since at least 2012. All the while, both major parties have been building up massive storehouses of voter data.

Information about hundreds of thousands of voters, compiled over the years from volunteer canvassers and paid staff, will be put to use to persuade and target various segments of the national voting population come election time.

240 U.S. Reps. Sign On to Bill Protecting Private Online Communications

While proposed reforms to government surveillance continue to stall, there are bipartisan efforts currently being made in Congress to protect Americans' online privacy.

Authorized in 1986, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) includes a provision that allows the government to access private users' e-mails stored on a third-party server after 180 days.

Service Members, Families Look to Future Combat Deployments with Uncertainty

On Wednesday, President Obama sent a formal request to Congress seeking the authority to wage a ground offensive against the Islamic State in Iraq, something the defense department (DoD) previously said was not on the table. This is the third time since the dawn of the 21st century that a president has sought congressional approval for the use of force in the Middle East and the first since President George W.

Looking to the Founders: The Presidential Veto

President Obama is widely expected to veto the Keystone XL legislation that has passed both houses of Congress this past week in its reconciled form.

It is also anticipated that the vote to override the veto will not reach the two-thirds majority needed--setting off the controversy over the checks and balances of the government.

Is modern politics really that different from the days of the Founders?

At times like this, we can look to the Founding Fathers--and see how our first five presidents employed this constitutional privileged of the executive branch.

Looking to the Founders: Combating Judicial Activism

When we think of judicial activism or so-called "legislating from the bench," we typically think of this being a modern phenomenon complete with the modern rhetoric of judges going against the will of the people to create or strike-down laws.

Throughout the 20th century, many powerful court cases decided social issues at a national level, including segregation, abortion, and most recently gay marriage.

Numerous politicians, from both the left and right, periodically call for the end of judicial activism; especially, after being on the losing side of a case.