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The Facts on U.S.–Canada Tariffs Nearly One Year Into Trump’s Plan

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2026 Will See an Increase in Rejected Mail-In Ballots - Here's Why

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When Separation of Powers Becomes a Suggestion

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Democracy Madness final pits ranked-choice vs. presidential voting

Final bracket
Tristiaña Hinton/The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumJun 03, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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There are officially no No. 1 seeds left in Democracy Madness, our reader-driven contest to pick the fan favorite proposal for fixing what's broken in our political system.

The Cinderella story of the 64-idea tournament, the eleventh seeded National Popular Vote Compact, takes on a second seed, ranked-choice voting, in the championship round.


The idea of getting states to pledge their electoral votes to the national (not their own) winner of the presidential popular vote defeated one of the top seeds in the tournament, conducting all elections with paper ballots. To this point, it had already knocked out ideas like creating independent commissions to draw legislative districts, which had been the biggest upset of the tournament — until now.

RCV, where voters list candidates in order of preference and instant runoffs produce the consensus choice, has continued its coast to the championship round, most recently besting the repeal of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. That is the second No. 1 seed RCV has taken down, after toppling the call for a new Voting Rights Act to win the banner in the Voting region.

Now it's time for you to decide which idea will be the champion of Democracy Madness. Can the National Popular Vote Compact continue its Cinderella story and become the belle of the ball? Or will RCV knock it out without a fight like all its other competitors?

Cast your vote now. The winner will be crowned Monday.


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Postal Service Changes Mean Texas Voters Shouldn’t Wait To Mail Voter Registrations and Ballots

A voter registration drive in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Oct. 5, 2024. The deadline to register to vote for Texas' March 3 primary election is Feb. 2, 2026. Changes to USPS policies may affect whether a voter registration application is processed on time if it's not postmarked by the deadline.

Gabriel Cárdenas for Votebeat

Postal Service Changes Mean Texas Voters Shouldn’t Wait To Mail Voter Registrations and Ballots

Texans seeking to register to vote or cast a ballot by mail may not want to wait until the last minute, thanks to new guidance from the U.S. Postal Service.

The USPS last month advised that it may not postmark a piece of mail on the same day that it takes possession of it. Postmarks are applied once mail reaches a processing facility, it said, which may not be the same day it’s dropped in a mailbox, for example.

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The Many Victims of Trump’s Immigration Policy–Including the U.S. Economy

Messages of support are posted on the entrance of the Don Julio Mexican restaurant and bar on January 18, 2026 in Forest Lake, Minnesota. The restaurant was reportedly closed because of ICE operations in the area. Residents in some places have organized amid a reported deployment of 3,000 federal agents in the area who have been tasked with rounding up and deporting suspected undocumented immigrants

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The Many Victims of Trump’s Immigration Policy–Including the U.S. Economy

The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term resulted in some of the most profound immigration policy changes in modern history. With illegal border crossings having dropped to their lowest levels in over 50 years, Trump can claim a measure of victory. But it’s a hollow victory, because it’s becoming increasingly clear that his immigration policy is not only damaging families, communities, workplaces, and schools - it is also hurting the economy and adding to still-soaring prices.

Besides the terrifying police state tactics, the most dramatic shift in Trump's immigration policy, compared to his presidential predecessors (including himself in his first term), is who he is targeting. Previously, a large number of the removals came from immigrants who showed up at the border but were turned away and never allowed to enter the country. But with so much success at reducing activity at the border, Trump has switched to prioritizing “internal deportations” – removing illegal immigrants who are already living in the country, many of them for years, with families, careers, jobs, and businesses.

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Democrats seek a post-Trump strategy, but reliance on neoliberal economic policies may deepen inequality and voter distrust.

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After Trump, Democrats Confront a Deeper Economic Reckoning

For a decade, Democrats have defined themselves largely by their opposition to Donald Trump, a posture taken in response to institutional crises and a sustained effort to defend democratic norms from erosion. Whatever Trump may claim, he will not be on the 2028 presidential ballot. This moment offers Democrats an opportunity to do something they have postponed for years: move beyond resistance politics and articulate a serious, forward-looking strategy for governing. Notably, at least one emerging Democratic policy group has begun studying what governing might look like in a post-Trump era, signaling an early attempt to think beyond opposition alone.

While Democrats’ growing willingness to look past Trump is a welcome development, there is a real danger in relying too heavily on familiar policy approaches. Established frameworks offer comfort and coherence, but they also carry risks, especially when the conditions that once made them successful no longer hold.

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U.S. President Donald Trump on February 13, 2026 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

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Autocracy for Dummies

Everything Donald Trump has said and done in his second term as president was lifted from the Autocracy for Dummies handbook he should have committed to memory after trying and failing on January 6, 2021, to overthrow the government he had pledged to protect and serve.

This time around, putting his name and face to everything he fancies and diverting our attention from anything he touches as soon as it begins to smell or look bad are telltale signs that he is losing the fight to control the hearts and minds of a nation he would rather rule than help lead.

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