Election 2024: A Look Ahead
by Noah Tang
As Election Day 2024 approaches, candidates from both parties tirelessly hit the campaign trail. They seek to win their party’s nomination and then triumph in the general election. Among Democrats, President Joe Biden has the advantages of incumbency and faces no major rivals. The Republican contest is dominated by former President Donald Trump, but also features several potential challengers.
According to Dr. Mark Caleb Smith, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities and ...
Is Congress Due for a Red Wave?
By Esther Fultz
Presidential elections get a lot of attention, both by the media and voters. Midterm elections, while less publicized, play an equally important role, giving Americans the opportunity to rearrange the political makeup of Congress, both in the House and the Senate. With midterm elections approaching this year, Americans are already discussing possibilities and predicting outcomes.
“Historically, it is more common that the party represented in the White House will lose ...
Recent Vaccine Mandates Raise Questions and Controversy Over Constitutional Rights
By Anna Harman
COVID-19 has impacted our lives for almost a year and a half. In recent months, vaccines for COVID-19 have been produced and have been recommended to citizens by many healthcare officials.
Now, the vaccines are beginning to be required for many schools, businesses, federal occupations, events, and the medical field. There are varying opinions on the many questions of whether the act of requiring the COVID-19 vaccines is threatening our constitutional rights.
Do schools, ...
An Overview of President Joe Biden’s Term to Date
By Esther Fultz
According to Gallup poll results released Aug. 20, American opinions regarding President Joe Biden are very mixed. Following the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, 49% of Americans were in favor of Biden while 51% did not support him or were unsure on their stance.
Dr. Robert Clark, Assistant Professor of History, pointed to Biden’s recent decision to share nuclear technology with Australia as a positive aspect of Biden’s presidency. While the decision did come ...
Voting By Mail
Over 75% of American voters will be eligible to vote by mail this November as states scramble to adapt to a pandemic in the middle of one of the most controversial elections in recent history.
by Breanna Beers
Is voting by mail a good idea?
The benefits of mail-in voting are obvious, especially during a pandemic: safety, accessibility and public health. But what about the drawbacks?
Myths around voting by mail abound, most notably the claim that mail-in ballots are a major source of ...
Political Grace
How to be a Christian in an election season
by Breanna Beers
You can be a Republican and be a Christian.
You can be a Democrat and be a Christian.
Shocking, I know. It seems like every year it gets harder to accept that, especially given [insert whatever horrifying thing the other side did this week].
The latest outrage, however, is just a symptom of a deeper problem: the system itself is structured to incentivize and benefit from our polarized tribalism. The people in power want no ...
The Games Within the Games:
International Politics and the Olympics
by Breanna Beers
The Olympics may be over, but the political games are just beginning. The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics were fraught with international maneuvering, from the conspicuous absence of the Russian colors to the high-profile participation of North Korean athletes alongside their South Korean hosts.
The image of athletes from both North and South Korea marching as a unified team under a single flag has quickly become a famous one, leading many ...
Analysis: Gun Violence in the United States
Is it getting worse, or are we just paying more attention?
by Breanna Beers and Alexandria Hentschel
Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Orlando: these cities have come to represent not just locations, but tragedies that have torn apart both individual lives and the nation as a whole.
The United States is home to more mass shootings than any other nation by a wide margin. According to a study published by Dr. Adam Lankford of the University of Alabama, the United States has had 90 mass shooti...
Congress In Turmoil Over Immigration
What’s Happening With DACA and the Wall?
by Alexandria Hentschel
The United States legislature is battling over immigration, a standoff which was the main cause of the January’s government shutdown.
On the table are two vastly different proposals. First, the Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) bill, which is up for renewal and offers certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines the opportunity for consideration of ...
Government Shutdown Imminent
by Timothy Mattackal
The United States government will shut down at midnight on Friday unless a continuing resolution is passed to fund the budget. At the moment, the passage of such a bill seems unlikely as Republicans and Democrats have failed to come to terms over the details of a funding bill. If it occurs, this will be the second time the government has shut down this decade, with the previous occasion being in 2013, and the eighteenth instance of a shut down since 1974.
Republicans ...
