American politics have become alarmingly adversarial. Extreme partisanship has deemed any oppositional view as the dangerous "other," making ideology the source of political gridlock. In politics, identifying colleagues as the enemy is unlikely to produce workable solutions. It is also un-American. Our true enemy is not the “other side,” it is ideology: a man-made worldview reducing life to a simple formula.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, the tax-exempt organization responsible for putting on the national presidential debates, has been under intense public scrutiny for excluding third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein from the debates, and activist groups are now questioning who actually finances them. It seems that presidential debate funding is often convoluted and highly protected.

Photo: Marc Levine from Levineforassembly.com

California's new top-two open primary system has caused several candidates from the same party to face off in general election contests across the state. In the California 10th Assembly District race, two Democrats, Assemblyman Michael Allen and San Rafael City Councilmember Marc Levine, are running head-to-head in the general election.

For the first time in its history the Green Party has received matching public funds for the presidential election from the government, and they are on most of the state ballots.  Though the media is only focused on the two big parties (the Democrats and Republicans), the people need to be aware that there are more than just two parties.  The focus of the party is called the Green New Deal, which is a four-part plan to reshape our economy, put Americans back to work, and change Washington.  When reading through it, it all basically sounds fairly simple and straight-forward.  And severa