Utilizing National Journal expertise to explore the issues of today.
Even if voting machines never go online, digital threats to the US political system loom over this year’s midterm elections and, presumably, every election to come. A full year after US intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that President Vladimir Putin directed a Russian operation to interfere
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In November, voters from southwest Pennsylvania will vote for a congressional candidate for the second time this year. Instead of a Republican incumbent, which they’ve had for the past 15 years, the incumbent will be Democrat Conor Lamb. He recently beat Republican Rick Saccone in
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“All politics is local.” So said former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil. The phrase means that, to succeed in politics, a politician must appeal to the mundane, everyday, and indeed local concerns of his or her constituents. But political analyst Charlie Cook, who
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Campaign finance has received more than its usual attention recently with the revelation that the Russian government spent at least $100,000 on political Facebook ads surrounding the 2016 election. This episode highlights just how unprepared we are to regulate campaign finance in the digital age.
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“Merit-based immigration” is one of those clever political phrases—like “pro-life”—that is impossible to oppose. Take the phrase at face value: who could be against an immigration system based on merit? Definitionally, it wouldn’t make sense. Someone who has merit is deserving, and immigration policy determines
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To paraphrase Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and John Paul Stevens in their majority opinion in McConnell vs. FEC (2004), when it comes to politics, money—like water—always finds a way in. Lately, the same could be said about politics and culture—the former keeps seeping into the
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The problem: eating my cake and having it too The internet is great at transferring information, but much less so at transferring value. This is because when information is sent through the internet, such as in an email, it is not really transferred at all—it’s
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Republicans and Democrats show different levels of trust in news media, with different media brand preferences. The gap seems wider, but isn’t abnormal.
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Washington Insiders feel confident that they can spot fake news, but it may be due to a few specific factors.
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