You’ve probably heard it before: A candidate for Congress ostensibly espousing the passage of term limits on members of Congress. They talk about how broken, corrupt, and entrenched government is and see term limits as a way to put a check on such officials from abusing their station for personal gain. It isn’t necessarily a key issue of an election (in fact, it usually isn’t), but you almost always hear it when election time is rolling around.

But are term limits a good thing? Will they happen for Congress? Or maybe the U.S. Supreme Court? Certain state governments?

First of…

One of the most interesting and important aspects to politics and political science, for myself at least, is political reform. It’s a common topic for all sorts of political observers. Just about nearly everyone — activists, politicians, academics, regular voters, and more — believes that one or more major laws, programs, fundamentals of politics and government, etc. needs to have a major overhaul. I count myself among these people. In fact, I believe that there are many, many things that need to be reformed and amended. It’s one of my biggest passions.

But one of the things about reforms is…

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to hold the world economy in its grip and grind normal life to a halt, COVID-19 fears have spread throughout just about every facet of life. And as we have seen in states such as Wisconsin, the conversation has included voting. While many states postponed voting thus far into 2020, states including Wisconsin and Florida chose to hold their elections as normally scheduled, heating up a debate as to whether in-person voting should still be held in the time of coronavirus — and the feasibility of transitioning elections nationwide to be all vote-by-mail (VBM).

Regardless…

The actual voting to determine the Democrats’ candidate to run against Donald Trump has finally kicked off as the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary are in the books, with the Nevada primary underway. As is their wont, many commentators in the media (and many voters) have already taken to hard narratives about the state of the race. For some, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg have been declared the clear frontrunners. Joe Biden being in serious trouble is another popular story. And on and on.

With the constant political media machine churning and candidates trying to capitalize on whatever…

Polls are all the rage in political commentary. They make for easy targets for news stories (even if they are bad or fake polls). One week, Joe Biden is leading the presidential polls. The next week sees Elizabeth Warren on top. Now suddenly Pete Buttigieg surges or Bernie Sanders makes a big push. And on and on. The “horse race” aspect of polling is what most people are interested in, but not so much the very nitty-gritty aspects. People tend to simply be more interested in a straightforward answer as to who is “winning.”

Polling is also a huge, expensive…

Oftentimes, when there is some sort of policy issue being discussed in the news, it is talked about in black-and-white, straightforward terms. This is particularly the case with strongly partisan or ideological politicians and interest groups who see little to no grey on issues. Even when there is a more nuanced debate, those who have a highly vested interest in an issue may boil down the issue to general values that ostensibly seem clear-cut, such as “limited government,” “public safety,” “equality/equity,” or “efficiency.”

The crafting of public policy, however, is a complicated and intensive process. Politicians and interest groups often…

In this age of never-ending news, the amount of information bombarding our senses can feel overwhelming. There is so much to keep up with when it comes to politics. Sometimes, people will respond by simply tuning it out. When elections roll around, the sheer volume of races up for a vote can make sifting through all the relevant information — or even finding it — seem like an insurmountable task. That’s not even counting non-political influences taking up people’s time, such as careers, social outings, and hobbies (at least the non-political ones).

The reality of humans’ mental and time limitations…

As the election season is ramping up, polling results are getting more and more media attention. They are part of the lifeblood of politics, a critical endeavor that can help tip the scales of an election by gauging where the public stands on candidates and issues. Campaigns rely on them so much to get a sense of what tweaks they need to make in a campaign to gain support, such as in messaging and which demographics they need to reach out to.

More and more it seems, polling also gets increasingly criticized and attacked when election results conflict with it…