Author / Arik Wolk
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The State of Misery
The State of Misery By Arik Wolk Artwork by Haejin An, Design Lead Like many college students, I have spent too much time during the past year scrolling through videos on TikTok. Of the many trends and styles of video on the app, there was one that centered on the state of Missouri. The videos… -
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Democrats: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid (of Redistricting)
For the second time this century, the Republican party will have significant control over drawing congressional and legislative districts for a large portion of America. According to analysis from Daily Kos Elections, the GOP will have unilateral control of redistricting in 17 of the 43 states that will draw new congressional seats next year which…
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The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of The Supreme Court Decision On Gerrymandering
After years of punting the issue to lower courts, the Supreme Court finally ruled on the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. In Rucho v. Common Cause the majority justices concluded in their decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, that partisan gerrymandering was a question beyond the scope of the Supreme Court. Essentially, what Roberts argued…
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Dummymandering: How Partisan Gerrymanders Could Backfire In 2018
It is no secret that political parties draw congressional district lines to benefit themselves. However, this November there are two states in which this gerrymandering could backfire on each party. Recent political trends and unexpected demographic shifts have changed the makeup of districts in many states since the district lines were drawn in 2010. This…
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Eviction Notice: The GOP House Member Most Likely To Lose This November
With the 2018 midterms only months away, Democrats are in a decent position to take back the House of Representatives from the GOP for the first time since 2010. Democrats’ chances of winning the lower chamber are boosted by the redistricting in Pennsylvania (after the state Supreme Court ruled their congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered…
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Inland Conservative Elites
Since the 2016 election, the prevailing consensus about America’s cultural divide is that there are the educated, wealthy, coastal liberal elites who look down on the poor, rural, conservative Americans who live in flyover states. Many Trump supporters cited this as the reason for their vote in the 2016 election. They were supposedly tired of…
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Last House on the Left
The narrative around the 2018 midterms is that Republican retirements will fuel a Democratic House takeover. The GOP will find themselves in the minority if they are unable to hold these open seats. There is merit to this theory. In numerous competitive seats across the country, GOP retirements are hurting the party’s chance of retaining…
