Andrew Gripp received his M.A. in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown University in 2012. He is a former political science professor, and he writes on American politics, international affairs, ph
With many voters disappointed with their choices for president in the presumptive nominees of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, many are considering alternative candidates. Thus far, the greatest beneficiary of this disappointment has been Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, who is consistently polling in double digits in three-way contests with
The unpopularity of the two presumptive nominees this November has left many voters looking for alternatives. Currently, the alternative candidate receiving the most support is former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the recently chosen nominee of the Libertarian Party. Recent polls show Johnson receiving double-digit numbers in three-way mock elections
Now that the major parties have all but decided who their nominees will be – with the official nominations coming this July – leaders in both parties are eager to unify their respective bases and discourage voters from considering independent and third party alternatives. Yet this task will prove especially difficult this
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both rather unpopular. How unpopular? According to one recent poll, 52 percent of the public views Clinton unfavorably, and 55 percent views Trump unfavorably. Because of this disaffection, a large sector of the electorate is eager for an independent candidate. According to
By sheer statistical coincidence, the percentage of Americans who self-identify as independents (approximately 40 percent) is nearly identical to the percentage of Americans who self-identify as moderates. This coincidence has nurtured a common misunderstanding: that independents are mostly moderates who want members of both parties to move toward the center.
On Wednesday afternoon, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump met with Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and national security advisor to presidents Nixon and Ford, to discuss foreign policy. The meeting comes after a series of controversial interviews that Trump had on the subject of foreign policy, including with
There is little doubt that the major national parties have, on the whole, behaved atrociously this election season. On the Republican side, there have been loyalty pledges, insubstantial RNC-arranged debates, and conversations about rule changes designed to thwart specific candidates. But the Democratic Party has not been guiltless. From undemocratically
On April 4, the governors of California and New York signed off on legislation raising their state’s minimum wages to $15 per hour. While the public may disagree about the merits of this measure and what the cumulative effects will be, there is little disagreement that states – as “laboratories
Twenty-nine seconds: according to Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani of The Intercept, this is how much time cable news networks Fox News and MSNBC devoted to daytime and afternoon TV coverage of the Democracy Spring protests as of April 12. On April 11, when 400 protestors were arrested for a
A persistent theme in the Democratic primary contest is that the race is between Hillary Clinton, the pragmatist, and Bernie Sanders, the purist – images that the candidates have both acquired and themselves actively nourished. Clinton has referred to herself as a "progressive who gets things done," and Sanders,
The political commentator Michael Kinsley once quipped that in Washington, "the scandal isn't what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal." President Obama echoed this sentiment last week during his comments on the Panama Papers – the 11.5 million leaked files released by
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is on a winning streak, having won eight of the last nine contests. Though Sanders still trails in terms of pledged delegates (whose support is tied to electoral outcomes in caucuses and primaries) by a count of 1,287 to 1,037, his deficit among