Op-Eds
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The 2025 Nepalese Gen Z Protests: How New Technology Bolsters and Undermines Global Democracy
The 2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests reflect an exciting era of democracy, marked by rapid communication and global inspiration. However, new innovations in technology can both bolster and undermine democratic aspirations.
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Race for the Future: The Emerging Technological Showdown Between the United States and China
The United States' reign as the world's undisputed tech leader is in jeopardy as China methodically closes the gap. This decline is being accelerated by inconsistent domestic policies that erode the very advantages that once secured its top position.
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Medals for a Massacre
The slaughter of innocents is not worthy of commemoration with Medals of Honor. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s refusal to revoke this honor for the soldiers present at Wounded Knee is a display of blinding patriotism at the expense of historical accuracy and dignity.
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How Erika Kirk Turns Grief Into Her Version of Women’s Liberation
Erika Kirk is using her recent publicity from Charlie Kirk’s recent death to manipulate her audience and project her idea of women's “liberation” onto them.
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Does Tylenol Actually Increase Risks of Autism?
With recent claims from President Donald Trump about links between Tylenol use by pregnant women and increased risk of autism, questions over fact-checking public officials who make public health announcements have heightened. Should government officials be held more accountable for making false medical claims?
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Combatting Transnational Crime: Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism
Organ trafficking and transplant tourism persist due to socioeconomic inequity, lack of legislation, and inadequate enforcement. Combating this crisis requires a comprehensive approach on both domestic and international levels.
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Who Protects the Protectors? The Global Failure to Safeguard Humanitarian Workers
The killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Rafah calls into question the erosion of international law and the international community’s failure to protect those on the front lines of crisis.
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Be Birch Bayh
As Senator, Birch Bayh authored two successful amendments to the Constitution. No amendment authored since him has passed. Let’s change that.
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Ignore ‘Protect the Children’ Hysterics — MAGA is an Anti-Child, Anti-Future Movement
Despite the movement’s supposed ‘pro-life’ foundations, MAGA supports an administration that has exercised severe political violence towards children at home and abroad.
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Putin is not afraid of NATO
The motivation for Putin’s invasions of Ukraine remain debated, but one explanation has run its course: that Putin fears the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Recent violations of NATO airspace bolster this conclusion.
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The Disappearing Teacher Pipeline: What’s at Stake for Virginia’s Classrooms
Classrooms are suffering under teacher quality and quantity, and proposals to cut federal teacher preparation programs threaten to worsen the issue — Virginians are looking to their next Governor to turn things around.
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Democracy’s Defense: How Due Process Protects Democratic Governance
Discussion of recent events have often centered around the term “due process.” Understanding the term and its implications for our democracy are crucial for its survival; far from being solely a legal protection, due process is an essential safeguard against authoritarianism.
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Grappling with Gun Violence in the Wake of Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Celebrating the death of Kirk doesn’t dismantle his harmful ideology — instead, it normalizes violence as a political tool.
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The Price of Populism: How the Big Beautiful Bill Targets Students, not Schools
President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” reimagines higher education not as a public good but as a battlefield, wielding endowment taxes and student loan restrictions as weapons against elite universities. Doing so punishes middle-income students most of all, trading their American Dream for fleeting political victories.
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When Executive Power Means No Accountability
Only nine months later, Americans have all but abandoned the brief class consciousness that emerged after the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Despite the country moving on, the cultural and legal issues this moment illuminated still persist. How do we solve them? And how do we move forward
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Where Have the Democrats Gone?
Democrats are facing criticism, but this time it comes from within their own party. With Republicans dominating the political sphere, people are urging the Democrats to step up and toughen up.
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The Texas Tripwire
The Texas redistricting effort is a blatant power grab that violates the democratic principles this country is supposed to abide by. Not only is it an indicator of the declining health of the American Republic, it ushers in a cascade of further gerrymandering, undercutting the voices of both Democrats and Republicans around the country.
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Shutting Down Isn't Reform: How Public-Private Partnerships Let Us Strip Down Government Smarter
The recent federal shutdown displays how abrupt pauses on government programs can create widespread harm without always delivering reform. If we want a leaner, more efficient government, reform must come through precision tools like public-private partnerships, and not total shutdowns.
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Not Being Republicans isn’t Enough for the Democrats to Win Back Voters
Even as the GOP embraces authoritarianism and accelerates wealth transfers to the rich, the Democratic Party’s time-worn message isn’t proving an effective counter.
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Addressing the Viability of Same-Day Voting Registration
Voting registration dates can create a sizable barrier for citizens trying to vote. Same-day voting registration has arisen as a practical solution to aid in expanding access to the polls and increasing voter turnout, but faces numerous obstacles to be further implemented across the United States.
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Examining Virginia's Dysfunctional Republican Ticket
In a time where MAGA seems more united than ever, Winsome Earle-Sears and John Reid, Virginia’s candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, pose a striking contrast.
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Sex Trafficking in Russia: An International Crisis Overlooked
State corruption, police complicity, and lack of global accountability enable Russia's role in global sex trafficking. Challenging harsher sanctions and collective international pressure, this article calls for action to rescue victims and break up traffickers' networks now.
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Don and John: President Trump Looks to Leave His Mark on the Kennedy Legacy
More than half a century after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Donald Trump took the Oath of Office for his second term as President of the United States. Only weeks into his term, President Trump has sought to make an indelible mark on the Kennedy name and legacy of the late president, with the ultimate goal of bridging the gap between two figures synonymous with American history for different reasons.
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The Cold War Never Ended: An Alternative Framework for Understanding Contemporary Global Conflicts
Many scholars believe that the Cold War — a major global conflict between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies — ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, some scholars argue that the Cold War is ongoing and that it is crucial that we explore the impacts of this alternative framework.
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The Current Case for the ERA
Recent rollbacks on womens’ rights create an atmosphere that necessitates the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to uphold gender equality in the United States.