Many of you are probably like me and feel fall is the best of the seasons. With fall, the heat starts to break with cooler temperatures. The fall foliage is amazing, especially where I grew up in Virginia. We get to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving, but mostly of all we get football. I love college … Continue reading With conference realignment, are many football rivalries history? →

By James Finck, Ph.D. What we now call the First American Party System was birthed over an economic crisis and two huge personalities. During Washington’s presidency the economy ranked as one of his most important issues. The new nation and the individual states faced series debt from the Revolution both from foreign nations and American … Continue reading History of American Political Parties, Part III: Birthing a Party System →

From the Southwest Ledger On Aug. 11 police in Marion, Kansas, raided the office of The Marion County Record as well as the homes of the paper’s publisher and a city counselor member. Police confiscated computers, cell phones and files from the small-town newspaper. The police chief, Gideon Cody, cited an illegal records search of … Continue reading Freedom of the Press Trials Arose Before Independence →

From the Southwest Ledger By James Finck, Ph.D. What is interesting about studying political parties is that there are no founding documents that set rules for how they behave or what their function should be. For most political issues, I like to start with the U.S. Constitution. While there are disagreements over interpretation, there is … Continue reading History of American Political Parties,Part II: The Necessary Evils of Parties →