American democracy is broken. While American democracy is not inherently flawed, perverse incentive structures have led to crippling dysfunction in Washington. Instead of governing, many politicians are seemingly on a never-ending quest for media exposure, social media followers, and campaign donors. In our hyper-partisan, outrage-driven media landscape, politicians have little…

I am both an optimist and a realist. As an optimist, I continue to believe that America is a perpetual work in progress, ever striving to become a more perfect union. America’s progress has been undoubtedly uneven, with spurts of progress followed by troughs of regression. The peaks and valleys…

There are moments when everything changes. When time can be marked by what came before, and what came after. In history, these moments fill textbooks, events like D-Day and 9–11. In our personal lives these moments are marked by births, marriages, deaths, and so forth. Most of our lives are…

Tracing the Evolution of our Partisan Politics through Past Party Platforms The term RINO has become derogative term used to describe someone who is supposedly a Republican in name only. Functionally, a RINO is now any Republican who fails to strictly adhere to the dictates of Donald Trump. But who…

Social Media requires more than Section 230 Reform Social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, are virtual communities. What were once sparsely populated online villages scattered across the Internet have transformed into complex societies serving billions of users. The speed in which these online societies have evolved and grown have…

Revisiting the Year that Changed America, Twenty-Five Years later. Twenty-five years ago, in 1994, America embarked on a road that would eventually lead to the election of Donald Trump. At the time, it would have been easy to miss the significance of the events that set America in motion. Internationally…

SECTION 230 OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT: A BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM Andrew P. Bolson Privacy Initiative of New Jersey Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was signed into law by President Clinton on February 8, 1996. For some perspective: 1996 20 million Americans had access to the Internet AOL…

On February 16, 2018, thirteen Russians and a Russian corporation were indicted by Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 Presidential election. The indictment detailed a massive and well-orchestrated Russian scheme to use social media to manipulate American public opinion, to stir existing tensions and to…

Technology has revolutionized nearly all aspects of modern life. Email, smartphones and social media are so ingrained into our society that it has become hard to remember how we existed before them. On a daily basis, we see what was once considered science fiction become reality. However, the breakneck speed…