IVN is built on the idea that anyone who is willing to participate in the news, under the simple etiquette, should be able to speak for themselves. As a result, IVN's content reaches millions of readers every month, over 100,000 readers follow our news on Facebook, and IVN continues to be the fastest-growing news source for independent-minded voters.

As expected of every election season, political gaffes were bound to happen. Gaffes have been associated with campaign exhaustion, an unsuccessful attempt at humor, or a lack of emotional discipline. Aside from acting as fodder for jokes or fuel for opponents, flubs made by political leaders and candidates alike can create a personal insight that their political image would not allow.

With an average approval rating of just 14 percent in 2014, it isn't hard to find fault in what Congress has -- or hasn't -- done in the last year. In true holiday spirit, however, let's take a break from complaining about the 113th Congress to reflect on some of the positive things that have come out of Congress in 2014.

The media is a common discussion topic on this website, as it should be. Dissatisfaction with both the political system and the media landscape is entirely related.

Followers of IVN want “independent” politicians and media. But that word "independent" is ostentatious and vague, which makes it perfect for political ad campaigns for any party, anywhere (“Want independence from Western pigs? Vote Ba’ath!”) and used car dealerships during the 4th of July (“Celebrate your independence by signing this lease…”). 

Almost everything that Whitman wrote was an attempt to understand and explain the deepest principles of democracy. These principles went well beyond social organization.

In response to a blow from Sen. Marco Rubio on Cuba, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used Twitter and Facebook to call on the Florida Senator to engage in a debate on the issue. "Let's be clear that Senator Rubio does not speak for the majority of Cuban-Americans," Paul stated in a Facebook post.

Liberty and equality, echoing around the world from the Declaration of Independence of what would become the U.S., became the basis of a social architecture that has included personal liberty, political equality, and a market-based economy. Since that Declaration was published, even the most cynical of political thinkers and actors have had to account for those two ideals. We’ll see below how recognizing mutual respect as the ethic of justice would take justice even further in the same direction that basing it on liberty and equality has taken it.

The U.S.

"[T]he agreement the Obama Administration has entered into with the Castro regime has done nothing to resolve the underlying problem. Indeed, it has made it worse." - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), December 17, 2014 "The power of free expression, free movement, and free markets is much more likely to advance Cuba toward freedom than the failed policy of isolation." - U.S. Rep.

“Anarchy—shall I say, is the worst of all governments? No: Anarchy is the absence of all government; it is the antipodes of order; it is the acme of confusion; it is the result of unbridled license, the antipodes of true liberty. The Apostle Paul says truly: ‘For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.’ At first this is a startling statement.