RobinOlimb via Getty Images

The Ohio ballot measure's victory is a big step in the right direction. It shows the citizens are in favor of fairness over partisanship. Hopefully, in a future election, a successful ballot measure will apply the same system to the U.S. House district lines as well (hopefully, this will happen before 2022).

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hearing an African American presidential candidate compare the mild health care reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act to slavery is hyperbole that is worth paying attention to.

CNBC via Getty Images

We probably already know how the Republican and Democratic candidates will answer these questions, but it is always good to get their views on the record and let the public see where they stand. This is particularly important because, according the public opinion polls, Americans overwhelmingly support affirmative answers to these questions.

Travelif via Getty Images

As we look towards the very real possibility that the next President of the United States will have an opportunity to nominate several Supreme Court justices, it is critically important to focus attention on a judicial virtue that has been neglected of late: Grit, that is, firmness of mind in the face of adversity.

Shutterstock

No American politician who has run for president has survived the media and voter hostility that Hillary Rodham Clinton has. She is clearly in a category all her own. But as voters, there are four Hillary groups Americans fall into -- lovers, haters, those who hate to love her and those who love to hate her.

Elvert Barnes | Flickr

These tragic events, 81 percent of which occur in the home, are far more common than the public mass shootings that make national headlines. And yet, this is an aspect of our nation's gun violence epidemic that is all too often ignored.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The fact that talks haven't produced a solution yet doesn't mean that diplomacy is failing. Real diplomacy -- the kind where everyone has to compromise to get a meaningful agreement -- is just getting started.

Joel Carillet via Getty Images

That Netanyahu has been voted into power for the fourth time this past March proves beyond any doubt that Israel has chosen occupation over peace and has normalized the brutal domination of the Palestinian people rather than liberate itself from becoming a modern-day apartheid state.

Digital Vision. via Getty Images

This spring, Sikh soldiers serving in the U.S. military marched in New York City at the annual Sikh Parade. The regiment offered an important introspective for Pentagon leadership, and an opportunity to sharpen its strategy against extremism with the power of American ideals.

Michael P. McDonald

In the latest example of the ineptness of the Democratic Party and their supporters, the Democrats lost a chance to win control of the Virginia Senate because their voters failed to show up at the same rates as Republicans.

Alex Wong via Getty Images

If the political pundits would look around, they would even discover a significant number of prominent U.S. democratic socialists at work in a variety of fields. These and many other democratic socialists, among them Bernie Sanders, have played an important role in American life.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Islamic State released an official video on Tuesday night that featured militants declaring the Metrojet plane crash an "achievement" and threatening "more attacks" against Russia in response to the country's bombing campaign in Syria.

Linjerry via Getty Images

How is it that America, supposedly the beacon of freedom and democracy for the rest of the world, has more prisoners than any police state?

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Peace talks that are dominated by American voices, Russian voices, Iranian voices, Saudi voices, may provide the opportunity for a de-escalation and perhaps some kind of ceasefire, but without greater involvement of Syrian society, the talks cannot bring lasting peace.

YouTube

Here's an idea for the adults who oversee our public schools: Let's stop beating up schoolchildren, pepper-spraying them, tossing them out of the classroom, and jailing them for doing the normal things kids do.

Shutterstock / Calin Tatu

At the end of November, delegations from nearly 200 countries will convene for what is billed as the most important climate meeting ever held. A failure to cap carbon emissions worldwide guarantees not just climate shocks, but also instability, insurrection, and warfare.

AHMAD GHARABLI via Getty Images

Benjamin Netanyahu has backed away from his claim that it was a Palestinian leader, rather than Hitler, who came up with the idea of exterminating the Jews. But Netanyahu's historical chutzpah has always been breathtaking, as I learned years ago when reporting on Israel for 60 Minutes.