San Francisco prides itself on setting up a system for opening up doors for fresh leaders — yet buried within its city charter is a quiet loophole that has allowed some politicians to remain in power, leaving no room for young people. Is this intentional or incidental? District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has proposed a […]
Tag: Voting
Dominion Voting Systems and Erosion of American Election Trust
The line cut through UC Berkeley’s campus before finally pooling into the Public Service Center, where volunteers handed out pizza and stickers to students voting in the 2024 presidential election. Before their turn in the booth, every student in line already knew the result of their vote: California and its 54 electoral college points are […]
Congressmen Eric Swalwell on the Government Shutdown & Future of Democratic Politics
Isabelle Jacobson and Keira Bixler are joined by Congressman Eric Swalwell to discuss the current government shutdown, its impact on the American public, and the political landscape. He also shares his perspective on the future of the Democratic Party, its challenges, and the path forward in uncertain times.
The Executive’s Ambush on Multilingualism
On March 6, 2025, the Executive Office of the President released Executive Order no. 14224: Designating English as the Official Language of the United States. The order revokes Executive Order 13166, which was put in place to protect limited English proficiency (LEP) people’s access to federally-funded services like education by providing multilingual access to their […]
The Global Playbook: How Athletes Are Used to Sway Political Voters
Athletes set the tone in stadiums, not parliaments. However, in the era of political dependence on the intersection of technology and media, athletes have become unlikely but potent allies in politics. Once national icons, sports figures across the globe are now being redrafted into entirely new uniforms: those of political activists, cultural symbols, and even […]
Controlling Control: Addressing Husbands’ Tactics of Controlling Their Wives’ Vote
Just over a hundred years ago, women finally secured the right to vote–extending political autonomy not just to men, but everyone. Universal suffrage in the United States marked an important milestone in American history by establishing legal merit toward gender equality. While women have since gained more independence and opportunity (e.g. obtaining degrees in higher […]
Clashes in Leadership
As the election looms ever closer, Congressional Republicans found themselves between a rock and a hard place: a government shutdown, and the demands of their presidential nominee, Donald Trump. However, this conflict arose not just from Democrat-Republican relations, but internal party politics. Through the whole month of September, Republicans and Democrats debated amongst themselves on […]
America Isn’t Broken—But Our Leaders Need It To Be
Americans hate politics. Or at least, that’s how it seems. A Pew Research Center study from last fall found that over half of Americans (55%) are “always” angry at politics in our country. And further, when asked “What word would you use to describe U.S. politics?” some of the most popular responses were “divisive” “chaos” […]
A New Perception of Right for New Zealand
October 26th of 2017 was a historic day for not only New Zealand, but the world. Jacinda Ardern stepped up to the podium in Wellington to be sworn in to office, where she would become the youngest female head of government in history at age 37. Her center-left campaign and agenda at the helm of […]
Blue Generation: Gen Z and the Democratic Party
By a two-to-one margin, young voters (between the ages of 18 and 29) backed the Democratic Party in the 2022 midterm elections. This significant split for the Democrats, coupled with the second-highest turnout among the 18-29 age bloc in a midterm election, played an essential role in avoiding an expected and historically-consistent wave of losses […]
On Ranked Choice Voting
In August, Democratic candidate Mary Peltola was projected as the winner of a special election in Alaska to fill the state’s lone congressional district following the death of former Republican congressman Don Young. Peltola beat the odds to win the seat, with pollster FiveThirtyEight forecasting just a 14 percent chance of victory in a state […]
A More Volatile Union: The Danger of Direct Democracy
In recent years, a growing cacophony of grievance from the progressive left has targeted our unrepresentative, antidemocratic, dysfunctional Senate. Much of this frustration has materialized in calls to end the filibuster. Though, one wonders if such decided advocates will change their tune when former GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell returns to his old job […]
The Case for D.C. Statehood
On January 6, as violent Trump supporters attacked the Capitol building in an act of insurrection against the results of the recent presidential election, Capitol police quickly became overwhelmed. The rioters, armed with semi-automatic weapons, pipe bombs, and molotov cocktails, held the Capitol and members of Congress hostage for over three hours. The event led […]
The (Limited) Case for Lowering the Voting Age
With a national walkout attracting 3,130 schools and a March For Our Lives rally which gathered hundreds of thousands of people, the momentum for gun control reform after Parkland seems unprecedented. Yet what is most perplexing to people is not how this movement came to be, but who it is spearheaded by. It’s not politicians, […]
“Pics or it Didn’t Happen”: California’s Millennials’ Resistance to Voting
How much would you pay for an avocado? Millennials, even if they refuse to admit it now, will fork up a relatively large amount, such as $12 for avocado toast or $5 for a side of guacamole. Driven largely by millennials, the current 18- to 35-year-olds, avocado consumption has skyrocketed from one pound per person in […]
Mobile Voting: The Next Step in Expanding Democracy
On July 4th, 1776, the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to draft the Declaration of Independence, separating the colonies from the oppressive British monarchy on the principle that a government that didn’t represent the interests of the people had no right to govern. Upon later establishing a representative democracy, the power of voting and the […]
Voter Turnout is Too Low in the U.S. – Here’s How to Fix It
It’s no secret — voter turnout is too low, and it doesn’t need to be. To increase voter turnout, two important changes should be made to the election. First, an option to select “None of the Above” should be included on the ballot. Second, election day should be made into a national holiday. The United States […]
Gill v. Whitford: A Case That Will Literally Map American Politics
Partisan gerrymandering has to be one of the least discussed but politically important topics in our generation. The notion that states can reapportion their districts with lines that can give the incumbent party a clear advantage in upcoming elections is what furthers the political divide and de-legitimizes the bedrock of our democratic republic. Several court […]
Why Asian Americans Don’t Vote: A Theoretical Perspective
I recently watched the new Jackie Chan movie called, The Foreigner, which is basically a Chinese Taken (highly recommended, by the way). But what stood out to me was the title. The only reason this title is even pertinent to the movie is the character that Chan plays, an immigrant in the UK who fights […]
Why The Golden State Didn’t Bern
Senator Sanders’ rallies, like this one in Oakland, CA drew thousands of enthusiastic supporters. (Getty) Despite the hype, California didn’t swing for Bernie on June 7, 2016. While national polls predominantly aligned with Clinton, a Sanders victory was still a real possibility leading up to the California primary, especially coming on the heels of a well-won Midwest […]
One Person, One Vote: Ambiguous Law of the Land
On April 4, 2016, the United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 in the case of Evenwel v. Abbott that states are to draw legislative district lines on the basis of total population. This decision is considered to uphold the long standing bedrock principle of our constitution that there should be “one person, one […]
Motor Voter: As California Goes, Will the Country?
The 2014 midterm election represented a new low for California politics. With a record-low 42% voter turnout, political involvement in California looked dim. The cynical adage of millennial political apathy seemed to ring true, and alarmingly so—only 52% of eligible youth from ages 18-24 were registered to vote. Low congressional job approval ratings—14% according to […]
The Fake Liberation: Dissecting the Impact of Saudi Arabia’s “All-Women” Cities
Saudi Arabia, the country where women are not allowed to go in public without a chaperone, have individual rights in court, drive, wear clothes that show off too much skin, wear too much makeup, study engineering, architecture, or political science, interact with men outside the family, use swimming pools, compete freely in sports, try on […]
The Crack in Voting Equality
“Freeway” Rick Ross, the first distributor of crack cocaine in the US “We never called it crack, that was what the government named it,” says “Freeway” Rick Ross, the man largely credited with the introduction of crack cocaine to the US, “I think that they gave it the name crack to sensationalize the danger of […]