Month: January 2026

How a Bill Actually Becomes a Law — The Version They Don’t Teach in School

Schoolhouse Rock made it look like a reasonably orderly process. A bill has an idea, gets written down, goes to committee, gets debated, passes both

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New Voting Laws Across the U.S.— What They Change and Who Feels It

Since 2020, more than two dozen states have rewritten significant pieces of their election law. The political arguments around these changes have been loud, the

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What Political Polarization Is Doing to Our Personal Lives

Something happened to Thanksgiving a few years ago and it hasn’t fully recovered. I don’t mean this in a way that’s specific to one family

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Student Loan Forgiveness —Where Things Stand and What Comes Next

I’ll be honest about something: I didn’t pay attention to local elections for most of my adult life. I voted in presidential years, sometimes in

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Local Elections Are Where Things Actually Get Decided

I’ll be honest about something: I didn’t pay attention to local elections for most of my adult life. I voted in presidential years, sometimes in

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Social Media and Politics —What’s Changed and What Campaigns Still Get Wrong

The 2008 Obama campaign gets cited constantly as the moment digital politics arrived. In retrospect, it was more like the dial-up era of digital politics.

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Immigration in 2026 — Separating the Noise From What’s Actually Happening

Immigration is possibly the topic where American political conversation has the widest gap between the heat generated and the light produced. Everyone has strong feelings.

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The Federal-State Tug of War Is Bigger Than It Looks

At some point in the last few years, the federal government and a significant number of state governments stopped being in the same basic argument

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How State Laws Are Quietly Creating Two Different Americas in the Classroom

My cousin teaches fourth grade in Tennessee. Her friend from college teaches the same grade in Massachusetts. They text each other sometimes about their weeks

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What Young Voters Actually Care About Right Now

Nobody asked me when I turned ­18 what I wanted from a politician. They handed me a voter registration card, pointed me toward a booth,

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