Outside the Beltway

While “fundamentals” will have more impact on choosing our next president than what happens on the campaign trail, the race itself is important.

Finally.

The Confederate Flag needs to be removed from official places of honor, but do we really need to worry about reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard?

The Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality seems to have revived an idea that has been mentioned before, but as it has always been, the idea of “getting government out of marriage” is little more than a simplistic slogan.

The Attorney General of Texas is responding to the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling by telling Clerk’s who issue marriage license that they are free to ignore the law.

The people who continue to claim that the Confederate Flag is about anything other than hatred, racism, and a nation that celebrated slavery are lying to you and to themselves.

A proposed California law would require all students who attend public school to be vaccinated, with limited exemptions for medical reasons.

An important tenet of the internet is “don’t read the comments.” Well, I have violated that rule of late–which means more musings on the symbols of the CSA.

As Governor Haley pushes the South Carolina legislature to take the Confederate Flag down, the movement moves beyond the Palmetto State.

The murders in Charleston have revived a debate that should have been over a long time ago.

The President’s plan to give deportation relief to millions of illegal immigrants has hit another legal snag.

Two Republican candidates for President say that Republican elected officials should simply ignore the Supreme Court if it strikes down bans on same-sex marriage.

A new poll suggests that the American public does not support laws that give religious exemptions to businesses that want to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

The debate over whether kids need to be vaccinated against communicable diseases baffles me.

After weeks of giving every indication that he’s running for president yet again, Mitt Romney has announced that he’s not a candidate for 2016.

The first popularly elected African-American Senator, and the first African-American Senator to serve since the end of Reconstruction ended, has passed away.

Some preliminary thoughts on the inaugural college playoff system.

But, hey, don’t worry, there’s nothing racial going on here. Nothing at all.

Texas has joined with 16 other states in a lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the President’s executive action on immigration. At first glance, it doesn’t appear to have much legal merit.

For better or worse, Marion Barry was a fixture in D.C. politics for much of the 40 year period of home rule that began in 1975.

In the end, there appears to be very little, if anything, the GOP can do to stop or roll back the executive actions the President will announce Thursday evening.

The GOP’s big wins last week seem to be just guaranteeing that this year’s battle between the Tea Party and the “establishment” will continue.

A popular idea that does nothing useful while simultaneously violating the Constitution.

The GOP is dominant in the Southern United States, but it’s unlikely to last as long as Democratic dominance of the region did.

Voter Turnout was lower this year than in any midterm since the one held eleven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

There’s more to life than politics. Unfortunately, there are many Americans who don’t seem to recognize that fact.

Another setback for the radical fringe of the “pro-life” movement,

The B.C.S. was far from perfect, and the College Football Playoff system will be, at best, only slightly better.

A disappointing setback.

The most bizarre race of 2014 is finally over.

As usual, politicians and pundits are helping to create a climate of fear and concern about Ebola that is not justified by the facts.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has made an incredibly weak argument in favor of his state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

The death of the Tea Party is greatly exaggerated.

Chris McDaniel’s meritless, quixotic challenge to the Mississippi GOP Senate Primary is reaching it’s expected conclusion.

Alabamians like to exclaim, “Thank God for Mississippi.” Perhaps it’s time for that slogan to cross the Pond.

The numbers are shocking!

A big setback for Mississippi’s erstwhile Tea Party candidate for Senate.

Tea Party backed candidates may have lost most of the GOP primary battles, but they’ve won the war for control of the Republican agenda.

There is simply no evidence of the kind of in-person voter impersonation that Voter ID Laws were designed to prevent.

No, it’s not over yet.

The Tea Party v. “establishment” battle in the GOP has been pretty one-sided this year.

Six weeks have passed since the primary, and Chris McDaniel has revealed he really doesn’t have much to complain about other than the fact that he lost.