I'm not saying it's time to break out the champagne and start chanting, "The people united will never be defeated." But the past few weeks have brought us some heartwarming demonstrations that the popular will still has a bite.
I generally take the longer view and think Supreme Court nominations are the most significant actions U.S. presidents take, but besides anything Obama has already done or will do in the future, the election itself made democracy better -- maybe.
California shows that deep political and governance deadlocks can be broken, and progress made. This holds a lesson both for the national government but also for other states. Maybe, the rest of us outside the state ought to pay attention.
What if the fiscal cliff were settled by each party submitting its fiscal plan in a final bill that also provided for a national referendum on the alternative plans to be held on January 31, 2013?
President Obama, you must lead. It is you who must "settle." Or it will be you who gets blamed for the second credit downgrade and second recession in five years, not your oft-blamed predecessor, George W. Bush.
The fact is neither party truly cares about Christian morality, certainly not based on Old Testament scriptures. What seems instead to be driving both is power and control. Republicans care about power and control for the wealthy, while Democrats care about power and control for the not-so-wealthy.
WASHINGTON -- A common complaint from Republicans friendly to Mitt Romney's campaign, but outside it, has been that the campaign has been knocked off ...
Voters in North Dakota will decide Tuesday whether to continue using property taxes to fund local governments or to instead use oil funds to bolster m...
Greeks must decide to stay or go. Perhaps that is why it failed to come before the people. Perhaps that is why, when on May 6 the election was played out in a way that minimized the literal and more important question -- "Do you want to adopt the new agreement?" -- it failed again.
Several 2011 legislative sessions across the country have seen progressives harnessing popular power to counteract more conservative legislation. Now,...
The Super Committee can still salvage something that, for a Congress whose approval rating is just slightly north of Fidel Castro's, would actually make the American people feel empowered.
North Dakota may be the next state where voters will be asked to slap down their local legislature. The bone of contention is nothing less than the fu...
Democrats and progressives in Ohio have just over a week to gather 10,000 more petition signatures to force a referendum to overturn the state's contr...
Each side wants the most it can get, but it must consider that the other side may decide to relinquish some of what it wants to get closer to what it estimates the American people want.
In a democracy, it is the people who need to have the power, not just the rich and powerful. Let us hope that Americans learn that their rights are very tenuous and need to be protected, rather than simply taken for granted.
Democrats and good-government advocates, then, have nothing to lose (and much to gain) by pushing for redistricting initiatives and referenda everywhere that they are available in 2012.
In California a battle continues over whether to allow the people to vote whether to continue the current state tax rates or receive reduced state services like education and security on our streets.
If the international community intends to assist the people of Sudan -- all of it -- then it should assist its economic, political and social growth, not leave it in the hands of an authoritarian regime.
Whatever the outcome, the challenges in Southern Sudan are daunting. Some 51 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and more than half are under the age of eighteen. Only 27 percent of the adult population is literate.
Al Jazeera's interview with President Omar al Bashir of Sudan just a couple of days before the South votes on secession is making headlines. In it h...