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March 9, 2018 Elections / On the Issues

Recap: Charlie Cook on the 2018 Midterms

“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

We’re Woefully Unprepared to Deal with Campaign Finance in the Digital Age

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.

February 16, 2018 Immigration / On the Issues

What is Merit-Based Immigration?

“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

February 8, 2018 On the Issues

The Politics of the Olympics

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

January 19, 2018 On the Issues / Technology and Cybersecurity

Blockchain: Solving the Internet’s Value Problem

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