Outside the Beltway

Our psychological and cultural biases make evaluating information and arguments rationally next to impossible.

Parties are in politics primarily to win the vote of the median voter, not to join together and sing Kumbaya.

Some thoughts on the voter registration/voter turnout debate.

We should want more voters, not less, if we actually value representaitve democracy.

According to some historians, a President isn’t truly great unless he involves America in a bloody and destructive war.

Legendary musician Levon Helm is dying.

The Senate didn’t have a productive 2011. Is this just a case of laziness?

We need a lot less fake empathy in politics.

Facts are stubborn things.

OTB’s comment section as a microcosm of the American political landscape.

Far from being deterimental, there is a case to be made that SuperPACs have actually expended democracy during this election cycle.

This week’s hearings in the Supreme Court caught many proponents of the Affordable Care Act off guard.

Dan Drezner declares that “Policy wonks ignore political science journals at their peril.”

Is the now-familiar refrain that the individual mandate was originally a conservative idea really true?

What walking around knowledge about our political system is necessary to be an informed citizen?

Dharun Ravi was convicted of bias intimidation toward Tyler Clementi. It’s not at all clear that he should have been.

The odds are against anyone who challenges an incumbent President. So, how do you do it?

Can Wall Street predict the outcome of Presidential elections? Not really.

What does it mean to have a limited government?

Voter ID laws are a good idea, but we have to be careful in how we implement them.

That word does not mean what you think it means (at least if you work in the mass media).

Arizona’s senior Senator want’s to bomb Syria.

Our political scene has changed drastically since Bob Kerrey was last in the Senate.

Billionaires have been free to donate as much money as they want to activist groups since the dawn of the Republic.

Worried the GOP might eliminate the filibuster if they gain control of the Senate? Don’t be.

2012 may be the last chance for the current Republican Party to win the White House.

There’s an entire industry that profits from exploiting political controversy and division. Why do we let them get away with it?

Yet another sign that international intervention in Syria is most likely never going to happen.

When it comes to same-sex marriage, the right is fighting a losing battle.

China’s government may be more “efficient,” but it’s hardly a model for the rest of the world.

This is no way to pick a Presidential Nominee.

Foster Friess, Rick Santorum’s money guy, probably shouldn’t be his media guy.

The NYT has an interesting piece on the ongoing limted v. big governemnt debate.

The Obama Campaign is being criticized for agreeing to play the SuperPAC game like everyone else does.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg had some advice on Constitution drafting for Egyptians

Once again, the punditocracy is bemoaning the rise of so-called “negative campaigning.”

American politics is as polarized as ever, and it shows no signs of changing regardless of who wins in November.

Sarah Palin isn’t running for President, and she hasn’t officially endorsed anyone, but that hasn’t stopped her from putting her thumb on the scale.

Have Americans divided themselves into what are becoming increasingly different cultures?