Author: Victor Allis

Plot Your Politics

Joe Biden is Running Out of Time

Bill Clinton started his presidency with the trifecta: control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. His main legislative push in his first years was for universal healthcare. He and Hillary failed to get it done and during the 1994 midterms lost the House and the Senate. The Democrats did not…
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Reconciliation Review

Introduction As part of the Build Back Better event, run in the ActiVote app from November 3rd -November 17th, 2021, a poll on 11 topics and 2 bills was executed. The topics were:– Child Tax Credit– Earned Income Tax Credit– Expanding Medicare– Global Minimum Tax– Home Health Services– Pell Grants– Pre-K– Rural Development– Section 8…
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To Cancel or Not to Cancel

Many opinion pieces have been written about Cancel Culture, what it is and whether it is positive or negative. Vox wondered in 2020 whether we can’t stop fighting about it, and whether it “is a mob mentality, or a long overdue way of speaking truth to power”? An opinion piece in the New York Times…
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Planning Your Vote

Former heavyweight boxing World Champion Mike Tyson famously said: “Everyone has a plan: until they get punched in the face”. We were wondering whether his words also apply to voting. First, we wondered whether people actually have a plan (to vote). Second, how often do these plans get derailed? ActiVote helps our users plan their…
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Biden’s Slipping Approval Rating

The main story in the mainstream media after nine months of the Biden presidency is about his declining approval rating which in most polls has slipped from a high of mid-50s to now a low of mid-40s. Some opinion writers are already looking ahead to 2024 and make comparisons with recent 1-term presidents like Jimmy…
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Native American Voting Rights

Even if rules about voting are the same for everyone, they may affect different people differently. If you have lived in the same house all your life, you may only need to register to vote once. If you move from one rental property to the next every year, updating your registration is a yearly event.…
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Civic Holidays

Some holidays are special. For some people it may be Thanksgiving, originating from 1621. For others, perhaps with links to the military or memories of war, it may be Memorial Day, originating from 1868. Or, it may be Labor Day, originating in 1883. And for those striving for racial equality, it may be Juneteenth, which…
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Automatic Voter Registration

Tuesday September 28th, 2021 is National Voter Registration Day, a good day to reflect on how easy or difficult it is for people to register to vote. For some people, who have lived all of their adult lives at the same address, registering to vote may be a distant memory of something they did just…
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Infrastructure Week Results

Introduction As part of the Infrastructure Week ActiVote event, run in the ActiVote app from August 31st-September 16th, 2021, a poll on 11 topics, 2 bills, and 1 procedure question was executed. The policy topics were:– Cyber Security– Disaster Relief– Electric Vehicles– High Speed Rail– Lead Pipes– Legacy Pollution Cleanup– Ports– Power Grid Vulnerability– Public…
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National Service

Every now and again someone will bring up National Service as a solution to the problem of our country being divided.  In July 2021, in an op-ed in the New York Times, Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University, argued for having every young American before their 25th year complete a year of compulsory national service…
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