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Final regional bracket reaches the Final Four

basketball and democracy
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Two mini upsets in the Elite Eight created a couple of mismatched pairings in the Final Four of the Democracy Madness "Best of the Rest" division.

Always using paper ballots (No. 1), the top priority of election security experts, is taking on the concept of creating an ethics code for the Supreme Court (No. 5). The fifth seed destroyed the idea of statehood for Washington (No. 4) in the last round.


Could Congress' constant dysfunction have voters thinking it's a lost cause? The legislative branch had two chances to make it to the semifinals of this bracket, but both increasing Congress' capacity (No. 3) and having members spend more time on Capitol Hill (No. 7) got knocked out.

Instead the second seed, using federal funds for elections, will take on the sixth seed, increasing civics education.

Voting closes Tuesday evening, so make your choices now.



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Bad Bunny Super Bowl Clash Deepens America’s Cultural Divide

Bad Bunny performs on stage during the Debí Tirar Más Fotos world tour at Estadio GNP Seguros on December 11, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico.

(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Bad Bunny Super Bowl Clash Deepens America’s Cultural Divide

On Monday, January 26th, I published a column in the Fulcrum called Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Sparks National Controversy As Trump Announces Boycott. At the time, I believed I had covered the entire political and cultural storm around Bad Bunny’s upcoming Super Bowl performance.

I was mistaken. In the days since, the reaction has only grown stronger, and something deeper has become clear. This is no longer just a debate about a halftime show. It is turning into a question of who belongs in America’s cultural imagination.

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Bruce Springsteen on October 22, 2025 in Hollywood, California.

(Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for AFI)

Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ Demands Justice Now

Bruce Springsteen didn’t wait for the usual aftermath—no investigations, no statements, no political rituals. Instead, he picked up his guitar and told the truth, as he always does in moments of moral fracture.

This week, Springsteen released “Streets of Minneapolis,” a blistering protest song written and recorded in just 48 hours, in direct response to what he called “the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis.”

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North Carolina's Project Kitty Hawk, an online program-management system built by the government, has been beset by difficulties and slow to grow despite good intentions.

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Online Learning Works Best When Markets Lead, Not Governments. Project Kitty Hawk Shows Why.

North Carolina’s Project Kitty Hawk is a grand experiment. Can a government entity build an online program-management system that competes with private providers? With $97 million in taxpayer funding, the initiative seemed promising. But, despite good intentions, the project has been beset by difficulties and has been slow to grow.

A state-chartered, university-affiliated online program manager may sound visionary, but in practice, it’s expensive, inefficient, and less adaptable than private solutions. In a new report for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, I examined the experience of Project Kitty Hawk and argued that online education needs less government and more free markets.

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Your Data, Your Choice: Why Americans Need the Right to Share

Outdated, albeit well-intentioned data privacy laws create the risk that many Americans will miss out on proven ways in which AI can improve their quality of life. Thanks to advances in AI, we possess incredible opportunities to use our personal information to aid the development of new tools that can lead to better health care, education, and economic advancement. Yet, HIPAA (the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act), FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), and a smattering of other state and federal laws complicate the ability of Americans to do just that.

The result is a system that claims to protect our privacy interests while actually denying us meaningful control over our data and, by extension, our well-being in the Digital Age.

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