Few quid pro quos are as apparent as when McDonald’s CEO, Ray Kroc, donated $250,000 to President Nixon in 1972 in return for an exemption from price control that allowed McDonald’s to raise the cost of a quarter pounder with cheese -- along with its profits.

Let’s start with two beliefs that one cannot logically hold at the same time but which many people do anyway:

Two hundred and thirty eight years ago, on July 2, John Adams led the Continental Congress to declare the independence of 13 American states. Two days later, representatives of the 13 colonies ratified the text of the Declaration of Independence, written by a committee headed by the 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson.

What followed was revolutionary.

29,707. That is the number of signatures collected to get gubernatorial candidate Scott Summers onto the general election ballot in Illinois as the Green Party candidate. Around 40,000 signatures were collected to get Libertarian candidate Chad Grimm onto the ballot as well.

Why does this matter? Because in Illinois a “new party” needs to get 25,000 signatures, minimum, in order to gain access to the ballot.

To better understand this, it is important to know the difference between “established party” and “new party.”

There is a shift in the types of candidates and campaigns that will win general elections in California and current contenders are not in a place where they can do what they may have done in previous elections.

In 2014, as a result of California’s nonpartisan, top-two open primary system, Republicans are seeing tossups in areas of the state usually considered easy-wins for GOP candidates, while Democratic candidates have to re-strategize for intra-party campaigns.

On June 24, incumbent Mississippi U.S. Senator Thad Cochran managed to overcome his primary challenger, state Senator Chris McDaniel, in the state's runoff election. McDaniel, heavily backed by the tea party, narrowly defeated Cochran on June 3, but failed to gain a majority of the vote.

In American folklore, it is President Grant who coined the term “lobbyists” to designate those influence peddlers who attempted to bribe him with whiskey and cigars during his jaunts to the Willard Hotel in exchange for political favors.

The term, in fact, is much older -- as is the practice itself. In 1792, for instance, veterans of the Continental Army from Virginia sent one William Hull to Washington, D.C. to petition for higher compensation.

On June 26, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a 185-page report titled, "Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology." What makes this report so interesting is that it does not simply sort respondents into the inflexible "Republican," "Democrat," or "independent" labels. Instead, it divides voters into eight nuanced political typologies.

Unlike most of my liberal friends, I am not outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby. I believe in religious freedom. I support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And I am even willing to acknowledge that corporations are run by actual people who have the right to exercise their religion.

On Monday, the Supreme Court released its 5-4 decision in the case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. The knee-jerk reaction for many television and media news outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, was to make the debate about the idea of corporate personhood, or women's health, or the extent of religious liberty and whether or not the state has an interest in mandating contraceptive care (or if it can).