Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
Talk of the Town: What Selena Gomez’s Critics Get Wrong About Her Spanish

Talk of the Town: What Selena Gomez’s Critics Get Wrong About Her Spanish

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

A fictional, fanciful sign depicts the results of voter suppression through the unfair, partisan manipulation of district lines (gerrymandering).

The worst congressional gerrymanders of the 2020s

Photo from the movie "Conclave"

Certainty is the enemy of unity and tolerance

Podcast: Harnessing the power of juries

Podcast: Harnessing the power of juries
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumMar 28, 2023
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
See More Writings by author

Juries have been at the center of some of the most emotionally charged moments of political life, especially in high profile cases like the trial of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd's murder in 2021. This episode explores juries as a democratic institution, while guest Sonali Chakravarti argues that juries provide an important site for democratic action by citizens and that their use should be revived. She says juries could be a forward-looking institution that nurtures the best democratic instincts of citizens like examining their own perceptions and biases and engaging in dialogue and deliberation.

Listen.

Latest news

Read More

Rioters breaking into the Capitol
Rioters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Weep on January 6, but celebrate January 7

It was after midnight, and I was exhausted from the events of the previous 24 hours. It was January 7, 2021, and I watched in horror the events of January 6. It was disgusting that the cradle of democracy would be so defiled. But at 12:01 AM, I was given hope again because, on my television, the most wonderfully boring reality show was playing out on CNN. The Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were presiding over the counting and certification of votes for the next president of the United States.

Democracy survived. Most Americans outside the Washington Capital beltway don’t realize that the wounds of January 6 are reopened almost on a daily basis for those of us who consider ourselves as congressional institutionalists. Every time the media report, another insurrectionist is arrested, every time another one is sentenced, and every time the former President pledges to pardon them, it hurts. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to improving and maintaining the United States Congress, reliving those terrible events is truly painful.

Keep ReadingShow less
GOP Takes Charge, Faces Huge Fiscal Hurdles

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 03: U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks after winning the speakership for the 119th Congress at the US Capitol on January 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Mike Johnson on January 3 won re-election for the U.S. House speaker in a slim Republican majority, after swaying two out of the three members of his party who had joined Democrats to block his bid.

(Photo by Sha Hanting/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

GOP Takes Charge, Faces Huge Fiscal Hurdles

The GOP has a tough task ahead: dealing with a looming financial crunch in Washington next year. Key parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will expire, adding to the national debt, which has already hit $36.1 trillion. Contributing to the problem, the spending ceiling under the Pay-As-You-Go Act will require $190 billion in cuts, and enforceable caps on discretionary spending will also end. If Congress doesn’t act, an additional $5 trillion could be added to the debt in the coming year, according to the Economic Policy Innovation Center.

Investors are growing increasingly concerned about the rising national debt. Despite the Federal Reserve cutting rates, economists are worried about climbing bond yields, while Treasury officials are concerned about weak bond sales this year. Meanwhile, new interest payments on the debt have leap-frogged over the defense budget as the fastest-growing item of the federal budget.

Keep ReadingShow less
MAGA and Immigration: The unstoppable force meets the immovable object

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, center, acknowledges the crowd during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, July 16, 2024.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

MAGA and Immigration: The unstoppable force meets the immovable object

There’s an old saying about what happens when the unstoppable force meets an immovable object, a situation where two equally powerful and contradictory forces are in opposition to each other.

Such a situation is rapidly unfolding between two powerful forces within the Republican Party on the all-important issue of immigration. This issue played no small part in Donald Trump's election to a second term as President.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Salute to President Jimmy Carter’s Life and Untold Contributions to Humanity

US President Jimmy Carter smiles broadly as he attends a town hall meeting held at North High School, Torrance, California, September 22, 1980.

(Photo by Diana Walker/Getty Images)

A Salute to President Jimmy Carter’s Life and Untold Contributions to Humanity

At 100 years old, former President of the United States Jimmy Carter passed away on December 29, leaving a legacy of untold contributions to humanity. His tenure as Governor of Georgia was marked by denouncing the vestiges of racial segregation, strengthening the state's educational systems, and conducting governmental reform, which foreshadowed his combination of liberal social policies and fiscal conservatism as the 39th U.S. President.

Pat Merloe, contributor of many writings to the Fulcrum, shared this moving tribute:

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025