Skip to content
Project 2025
Donate to support
diverse voices
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
Trump, Greenland, and the Alarming Silence in Congress

Trump, Greenland, and the Alarming Silence in Congress

We Can’t Let Hegseth Win His War on Women

We Can’t Let Hegseth Win His War on Women

Is the U.S. Better Off Today Than a Year Ago?

Is the U.S. Better Off Today Than a Year Ago?

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

A car with a bullet hole in the windshield.

States Sue D.C. at Record Levels — MN Case May Be the Turning Point

Paper ballots win last spot in Democracy Madness Final Four

Democracy and basketball
by designing makes me more alive/Getty Images
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumMay 29, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
See More Writings by author

The drive to mandate paper ballots in every election has won the final "regional" bracket in our Democracy Madness tournament — which asks you, the reader, to select your favorite democracy reform idea from among an original list of 64 concepts.

Paper ballots, the top seat in our "Best of the Rest" division, topped second-seeded federal funding for elections in the championship game for this quadrant of the bracket.

When the Final Four kicks off Monday, paper ballots will challenge the winners of the previous regions: ranked-choice voting (Voting region), repealing the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case (Money in Politics) and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compac t (Elections).

Tune in on Monday to vote in the Final Four.


Latest news

​Donald Trump speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting.
Ethics & Leadership

America Stands Alone As Trump Undermines NATO and Our Allies

Protestors wearing masks and holding signs.
Environment

Philanthropy Must Accelerate a Just Energy Transition

Read More

A tale of two Trumps: Iran & Minnesota protests

State troopers form a line in the street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 14, 2026, after protesters clashed with federal law enforcement following the shooting of a Venezuelan man by a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

(Octavio JONES/AFP via Getty Images/TCA)

A tale of two Trumps: Iran & Minnesota protests

"Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled [sic] all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”

It’s hard to see this Truth Social post by the president on Tuesday and make sense of, well, anything right now.

Keep ReadingShow less
Political and Economic Pressures Set Up a Healthcare Shift in 2026
man in white dress shirt holding white paper
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Political and Economic Pressures Set Up a Healthcare Shift in 2026

Healthcare in 2025 was consumed by chaos, conflict and relentless drama. Yet despite unprecedented political turmoil, cultural division and major technological breakthroughs, there was little meaningful improvement in how care is paid for or delivered.

That outcome was not surprising. American medicine is extraordinarily resistant to change. In most years, even when problems are obvious and widely acknowledged, the safest bet is that the care patients experience in January will look much the same in December.

Keep ReadingShow less
Varying speech bubbles.​ Dialogue. Conversations.
Examining the 2025 episodes that challenged democratic institutions and highlighted the stakes for truth, accountability, and responsible public leadership.
Getty Images, DrAfter123

At Long Last...We Must Begin.

As much as I wish this were an article announcing the ninth episode we all deserve of Stranger Things, it’s not.

A week ago, this was a story about a twelve-minute Uber ride with a Trump-loving driver on a crisp Saturday morning in Nashville, TN. It was a good story. It made a neat point: if this conversation can happen here, it can happen anywhere.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026