Outside the Beltway

A political cartoonist for The Washington Post crossed a line and, rightfully, got condemned for it.

Five months after Charleston, Mississippi is still struggling to rid itself of symbols of the Confederacy.

The United States and Europe are giving everything the perpetrators of the Paris attacks hoped for.

With little actual debate and despite Paul Ryan’s promise of a return to ‘regular order,’ the House has passed a hastily drafted bill in response to the largely fear-based response to Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks.

To a large degree, the narrative you believe will govern the 2016 elections depend on which party you want to see win. But what’s the most likely outcome?

Linking view on guns to political self-identity.

Two candidates with no experience in elected office are leading the Republican field.

Another poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose the Iranian nuclear deal, but the effort to defeat it in Congress is still likely to fail.

It will never actually happen, of course, but some of Donald Trump’s fellow candidates for President have been eager to endorse his idea to abolish birthright citizenship.

Public opinion on the Supreme Court has declined significantly, largely because Republicans don’t like the Supreme Court very much right now.

In an era of incredibly polarized politics and 24/7/365 campaign mode, it’s refreshing to see politicians treat each other as human beings now and again.

More Democrats are calling themselves “liberal” than they have in years. Republicans, too.

Once again, only six or seven states are likely to matter.

Pundits and political scientists agree that, if the 2016 presidential election were today, we’d have a much better idea who would win.

So, she’s in.

Harry Reid made outlandish claims about Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. He probably knew they were lies when he made them. And he doesn’t care.

Two weeks after the email story broke, there’s no sign that Hillary Clinton is losing ground in the 2016 race.

Has the legislative branch abdicated its responsibility in US foreign policy?

Despite opposition from both Republicans and Democrats, the compromise budget resolution passed narrowly last night, but not without some last minute drama

A critic of the imperial presidency becomes an imperial president.

On a preliminary examination, the President’s executive action on immigration appears to be within the boundaries of applicable law. However, as with other exercises of Executive Branch authority, it raises some important concerns about the precedent that it sets.

The votes have been counted, the result is clear, but the battle between Senator Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel continues to get stranger by the day.

Public faith in government institutions is at all all time low.

Mitch McConnell is making promises to pro-life groups that the GOP probably won’t keep, but it’s still a politically risky move.

Congressional elections have become “nationalized” to a far greater extent than they have ever been.

TNR makes the worst possible case for a proposition that’s almost certainly right.

Twenty-five years after his seminal “End of History” article, Francis Fukuyama reflects on its legacy.

The left-right divide is worse than it has been in decades, and we’re paying the price.

Down to the wire in Mississippi.

The tragedy in Santa Barbara will. inevitably, revive the same old gun debate. But can it ever evolve beyond shouting?

A slap on the wrist underscores the bottom-up nature of US parties.

Republican leaders continue to say stupid things. They may still retake the Senate in November.

Polarization is not the cause of our problems.

Ron Fournier sees major similarities but ignores key differences.

There is far less overlap between the two parties in the House–and the shift has been empirically rightward.

It’s no wonder there’s no compromise in Congress.

Nearly two-thirds of House Republicans voted for default. They lost.

As long as we’re tacking on unrelated measures in order to secure a deal to end the government shutdown-debt ceiling standoff, why not some related measures?

Recent anti-corruption measures have contributed to making American government worse.

The political polarization we saw during the Bush Presidency has continued throughout the Obama Presidency.

Chief Justice Roberts is the only person who gets to say who sits on the FISA Court.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Affirmative Action in education didn’t go as far as many thought it would, but it’s future in the near-term seems fairly clear.

Sometimes it seems like all John McCain does is appear on Sunday morning news shows. The problem goes deeper than that, though.

The United States is as politically polarized as it was in 1865.

Almost no one can confidently explain, let alone define, the specifics of the 501(c)4 designation.