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Congress Bill Spotlight: renaming Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America”

Congress Bill Spotlight: renaming Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America”

Project 2025: Part II

Project 2025: Part II

Bible on top of an American flag

Project 2025: A Christo-fascist manifesto designing a theocracy

Musk budget cuts will leave millions uninsured

Musk budget cuts will leave millions uninsured

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Redistricting

Webinar rewind: How to make sure your vote counts

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Webinar: How to make sure your vote counts
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The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumSep 24, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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With legal fights over the election being waged across the country and disinformation clouding the truth about voting systems, Americans can be forgiven for their confusion about how to cast a ballot this fall. Because each state sets its own rules — for registering, getting and returning vote-by-mail ballots, timetables for balloting in person and so many other things — keeping it all straight can be difficult for both voting rights advocates and individual voters.

The Fulcrum hosted a live discussion in which we discussed the realities of voting during the coronavirus pandemic and resources that you can share with friends and family.

The discussion was moderated by The Fulcrum's editor-in-chief, David Hawkings, and featured:

    • David Levine, elections integrity fellow, Alliance for Securing Democracy
    • Jack Noland, research manager, RepresentUs
    • Eliza Sweren-Becker, Democracy Program counsel, Brennan Center for Justice

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    Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

    The Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland releases a new survey, fielded February 6-7, 2025, with a representative sample of 1,160 adults nationwide.

    Pexels, Tima Miroshnichenko

    Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

    An overwhelming majority of 89% of Americans say the U.S. should spend at least one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid—the current amount the U.S. spends on aid. This includes 84% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.

    Fifty-eight percent oppose abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development and folding its functions into the State Department, including 77% of Democrats and 62% of independents. But 60% of Republicans favor the move.

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    A Super Bowl of Unity

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    Getty Images, Adamkaz

    A Super Bowl of Unity

    Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and perhaps it is fitting that the Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday night's Super Bowl 59, given the number of messages of unity, resilience, and coming together that aired throughout the evening.

    The unity messaging started early as the pre-game kicked off with movie star Brad Pitt narrating a moving ad that champions residence and togetherness in honor of those who suffered from the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Helen:

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    The Paradox for Independents

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    Canva Images

    The Paradox for Independents

    Political independents in the United States are not chiefly moderates. In The Independent Voter, Thomas Reilly, Jacqueline Salit, and Omar Ali make it clear that independents are basically anti-establishment. They have a "mindset" that aims to dismantle the duopoly in our national politics.

    I have previously written about different ways that independents can obtain power in Washington. First, they can get elected or converted in Washington and advocate with their own independent voices. Second, they can seek a revolution in which they would be the most dominant voice in Washington. And third, a middle position, they can seek a critical mass in the Senate especially, namely five to six seats, which would give them leverage to help the majority party get to 60 votes on policy bills.

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    The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

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    Canva Images

    The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

    Excerpt from To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff

    In my book To Stop a Tyrant, I identify five types of a political leader’s followers. Given the importance of access in politics, I range these from the more distant to the closest. In the middle are bureaucrats. No political leader can accomplish anything without a cadre of bureaucrats to implement their vision and policies. Custom, culture and law establish boundaries for a bureaucrat’s freedom of action. At times, these constraints must be balanced with moral considerations. The following excerpt discusses ways in which bureaucrats need to thread this needle.

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