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Two containers, one with a U.S. flag and another with Canada's flag.

Just the Facts: U.S.–Canada Tariff War Escalates As Trump Raises Stakes

What Texans need to know about Prop 16, the ballot question on citizenship and voting

What Texans need to know about Prop 16, the ballot question on citizenship and voting

A woman typing on her laptop.

When Federal Websites Get Political: The Hatch Act in the Digital Age

Who’s Pulling Trump’s Strings? Inside Project 2025 and the 7 Think Tanks Reshaping America

Who’s Pulling Trump’s Strings? Inside Project 2025 and the 7 Think Tanks Reshaping America

Close up of U.S. Army and American flag patches on a uniform

Veterans Day Betrayal: ICE Detains U.S. Military Veterans Under Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Podcast: Rural broadband and the politics of "good enough"

Podcast: Rural broadband and the politics of "good enough"
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumSep 21, 2022
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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COVID-19 showed just how essential high-speed Internet is to our everyday lives. It determines how many of us work, learn, and access news and entertainment. Yet, millions of Americans do not have reliable access to broadband and millions more can't afford to pay for the service that's available to them.

Christopher Ali, the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State, unpacks these issues in his book Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity and joins the Democracy Works podcast for a discussion about market failures, how communities across the country are democratizing Internet access and how the federal government is now starting to step in thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in November 2021.We also discuss some of Ali's more recent work on the relationship between broadband deserts and news deserts, and how the combination impacts democratic citizenship.

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Rethinking Drug Policy: From Punishment to Empowerment
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Rethinking Drug Policy: From Punishment to Empowerment

Lady of Justice in front of a U.S. flag.
Rule of Law

Retired Federal Judge Warns of Threats to Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law

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From Gerrymandering to Threats Faith in Democracy and Constitutional Erosion
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From Gerrymandering to Threats Faith in Democracy and Constitutional Erosion

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People walking through the airport.

Passengers walk through the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Nov. 7, 2025.

Getty Images, Anna Moneymaker

What To Know As Hundreds of Flights Are Grounded Across the U.S. – an Air Travel Expert Explains

Major airports across the United States were subject to a 4% reduction in flights on Nov. 7, 2025, as the government shutdown began to affect travelers.

The move by the Federal Aviation Administration is intended to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, many of whom have been working for weeks without pay after the government shut down on Oct. 1. While nonessential employees were furloughed, workers deemed essential, such as air traffic controllers, have continued to do their jobs.

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A child looks into an empty fridge-freezer in a domestic kitchen.

Ronald L. Hirsch writes how America’s founding ideals demand government action to ensure equality in food, housing, education, and health care for all citizens.

Getty Images, Catherine Falls Commercial

Food Should Be a Fundamental Right; Extreme Wealth Is Not

There is no argument between Democrats and Republicans—even of the MAGA variety—that we live in a country of great inequality regarding a number of essential aspects of life: money, education, health care, and housing.

The difference between the two is that Republicans feel that if you don't have money, or an education, or good health care, or housing, it's your own fault; government has no responsibility. Democrats feel that it is the government's responsibility to provide each person with the opportunity to pursue their right to life, liberty, and happiness. This dispute is central to the current controversy over SNAP funding during the shutdown.

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People voting at booths.

AI is reshaping politics like social media did for Obama. From relational organizing to deepfakes, explore how technology will define the 2026 elections.

Getty Images, adamkaz

Who Will Be the First American Candidate To Harness AI

Social media has been a familiar, even mundane, part of life for nearly two decades. It can be easy to forget it was not always that way.

In 2008, social media was just emerging into the mainstream. Facebook reached 100 million users that summer. And a singular candidate was integrating social media into his political campaign: Barack Obama. His campaign’s use of social media was so bracingly innovative, so impactful, that it was viewed by journalist David Talbot and others as the strategy that enabled the first term Senator to win the White House.

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