Fears of a "kingly" president may be more justified now than during the rule of Andrew Jackson. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-1562])

The Iran letter and Netanyahu speech can’t distract from Congress’s impending doom

by Robert David Sullivan March 16, 2015

An elected chief executive and a separately elected Congress are in a constant battle.

This is neither the most mature nor the most effective way of getting out of writing emails. (Image from NBC's "Parks and Recreation")

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

Email phobia isn’t a becoming trait for male lawmakers

by Robert David Sullivan March 11, 2015

The holdouts against the digital word are almost all self-styled men of action.

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(Un)Conventional Wisdom

The Prison Trap

by Robert David Sullivan March 11, 2015

Though the crime rate in the United States has fallen sharply over the past quarter-century, our federal and state prison population has been frozen for nearly a decade at a historic high of 1.6 million. By one estimate, America has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of its pri

Washington may crumble in less dramatic fashion than depicted in the film "Independence Day."

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

American government may be doomed by efficiency, not by dysfunction

by Robert David Sullivan March 9, 2015

What if gridlock is the only thing keeping the United States together?

(Un)Conventional Wisdom

This week in polarization: guns and surviving the apocalypse

by Robert David Sullivan March 6, 2015

The one-gun household is disappearing from American life along with one-car garages single-family homes with single family bathrooms and other bygone markers of the middle class That seems to be the best explanation for polling data showing that the percentage of homes with guns has dropped sign