Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it's down to blood rlatives and paid staff).

A now-irrelevant provision of the Voting Rights Act may soon be no more.

Abigail Thernstrom will discuss the 1965 Voting Rights Act and her book, "Voting Rights--and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections."

The late New York Times columnist Bill Safire was known for channeling the “Great Mentioner,” the unseen oracle who launched political careers into the stratosphere simply by mentioning a person’s name. Today, a more malevolent oracle is at work in Washington — call him the “Great Whisperer” — seeking to...

A close look at a major voting group--aging baby boomers--shows that this growing demographic is becoming more conservative.

Most observers agree that the Hazare movement has awakened the traditionally inward-looking Indian middle class to a public cause. Now the newly awakened need to go a step further and start voting, running for office, and backing candidates who embody their values.

Forty-five years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department has adopted a definition of discriminatory intent that strengthens the federal hand in micromanaging districting in states and counties throughout the United States and increases the odds that the Supreme Court will soon cast a skeptical eye on Section 5.

The Voting Rights Act has become a period piece that today serves to keep most black legislators clustered on the sidelines of American politics--precisely the opposite of what its framers intended.