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Video: The Future of the Electoral College

Video: The Future of the Electoral College
The Future of the Electoral College

On March 25, The Fulcrum brought together three experts on the Electoral College to talk about efforts to revamp the process for selecting a president. Our editor-in-chief, David Hawkings, moderated a discussion focused on alternatives to the current system, including the National Popular Vote compact and proportional representation of the vote.

Our panelists were:


  • Kevin Johnson, executive director, Election Reformers Network
  • John Koza, chairman, National Popular Vote
  • Toni Zimmer, chairwoman, National Popular Vote Taskforce at the League of Women Voters

The full video is available above.

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Artists recording "We Are the World"

"We Are the World" united American on a common cause. Let's try to do that again.

Write your song for America

We have only four weeks until Election Day, but there’s still time for you to write your song for America.

This election is so close and we are so divided as a nation that half of us are going to be unhappy with the result of the presidential election. The Fulcrum wants to counter the rancor and divide, so we are offering our readers the chance to write a song — one that celebrates our common bonds. A song that calls out to every American to express their patriotism, no matter who wins, through positive action.

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Adam Kinzinger speaking at the Democratic National Convention

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger is among the many Republicans who have endorsed Kamala Harris.

Endorsements of presidential candidates speak volumes

Corbin is professor emeritus of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa.

There’s only a few weeks remaining before the 2024 presidential election comes to a close — that is, pending election certification, recounts, challenges and lawsuits. Ed Kilgore, political columnist for New York magazine since 2015, estimates that only 4 percent to 7 percent of the electorate is genuinely undecided.

However, there might be a bigger problem for both the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns. That is, Pew Research Center’s analysis of the past three elections reveals 63 percent of Americans — an alarming number — are not dependable voters. Sometimes they vote and sometimes they don’t. These voters are referred to as irregular voters.

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Robert Talisse

'There's nothing inevitable or permanent about democracy': A conversation with Robert Talisse

Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the 12th in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project."

Robert Talisse, a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, believes polarization is a problem that cannot be solved, only managed. He also believes the greatest threat to American democracy comes from within.

In Talisse’s diagnosis, American democracy suffers from a kind of autoimmune disorder. He makes the case that democracy can break down even when every participant in the process is operating in good faith to pursue their version of the common good. The reason this is so, Talisse argues over the course of a trilogy of books — “Overdoing Democracy,” “Sustaining Democracy” and “Civic Solitude” — is an occurrence that he calls “belief polarization.”

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Elderly woman on a train

A woman evacuating from Pokrovsk, Ukraine, in August looks out from a train car to say goodbye.

Oleksandr Magula/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

On Ageism Awareness Day, consider the impact of war on older people.

Kilaberia is an assistant professor at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work and a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project.

We know the toll that war has on youth, but older adults are suffering displacement, too.

We have talked about age-friendly cities, age-friendly health care systems, age-friendly universities, age-friendly workplaces dementia-friendly communities. We are not talking about age-friendly or dementia-friendly humanitarian responses.

Tomorrow is Ageism Awareness Day and it offers us the opportunity to draw attention to the impact of ageism, particularly in the many war zones around the world.

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