Political Parties

In the week since modest gun control died in the Senate , those of us who don't think guns make the country safer have been inclined to blame a few cowardly senators whose votes could have shifted the outcome. Unfortunately, the problem is bigger than that. Contrary to what then-Sen. Barack Obama told us in his inspiring breakout speech to the Democratic convention of 2004, there is a blue America and a red America. And the colors have been deepening over the decade since Obama spoke.

KARACHI, Pakistan — Police say gunmen on a motorcycle have shot and killed a senior member of a leading Pakistani political party. Police officer Sarfaraz Nawaz says Zohra Shahid was gunned down outside her home in the city of Karachi in southern Sindh province. Shahid was the vice president of former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Sindh. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing. Khan's party has claimed it was the victim of vote rigging in...

America's fiscal situation appears grim. The "supercommittee" was unwilling to make tough decisions, mostly because voters won't support the necessary mix of tax increases and spending cuts. Few politicians want to acknowledge that somebody's standard of living will have to fall. It's hard not to look at the current crisis in Europe and wonder if the United States might someday find itself in the position of Italy, even if we will be spared the fate of poorer Greece. For all the...

SOFIA, Bulgaria — The big theme of Bulgaria's parliamentary elections this weekend: mounting frustration over the widening gap between the giddy hopes linked to EU membership and today's sobering reality. But few expect things to get any better after the ballot — and the same discredited center-right party is likely to come out on top as voters see no good alternative. Voter apathy is widespread in a campaign that has also been overshadowed by an illegal wiretapping scandal; turnout Sunday is...

DEVASTATED BY the worst attack it has suffered since World War II, Norway will spend a long time mourning the government workers and promising young people tragically murdered last Friday and reflecting on how a killer apparently acting alone could have committed so much mayhem without being stopped. Civilized people everywhere will share the pain of such a terrible and senseless loss. Inevitably, too, there will be debate about who, besides confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik , bears responsibility for his hideous acts.

Former Uruguayan president-turned-dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry died July 17 at his home, where he was serving a 30-year sentence for killings and disappearances during his country's war against subversives. He was 83. Mr. Bordaberry had been suffering from breathing problems and other illnesses. His son, Sen. Pedro Bordaberry, confirmed his father's death. A wealthy conservative landowner, Mr. Bordaberry was elected president in 1971 during a chaotic time in Uruguay, when the democratic country was...

Democrats and Republicans may be worlds apart on most things, but at their headquarters just two blocks away from each other on Capitol Hill, each is confronting the same question: Have political parties lost their purpose? In the wake of two presidential defeats, the Republican National Committee on Monday unveiled its Growth and Opportunity Project , an effort to give the party engine a top-to-bottom tuneup. The winning side of last year's presidential election has been doing some reexamination, too. ...

Why is the elephant the symbol of the Republican Party and a donkey the symbol of the Democrats? A very famous political cartoonist named Thomas Nast is credited with making these animals the symbols of their parties during the 1870s. (The donkey was first associated with the Democrats during the election of 1828, but it wasn't until Nast used it in 1870 that many people began to link the Democrats with the donkey.) In 1874, Nast drew the cartoon shown above with a donkey...

CAIRO — Activists and politicians on Monday denounced an agreement signed by 13 political parties and Egypt's interim military rulers over the weekend to avoid an election boycott, saying it runs contrary to the principles of this year's revolution. Supporters of the agreement, reached after thousands took to the streets Friday to "reclaim the revolution," said it represented concessions by the military leaders. The generals agreed to amend an electoral law and review an expanded emergency law...

At the HuffingtonPost's " Oasis " spas in Charlotte and Tampa, delegates and VIPs at the Democratic and Republican conventions have been treated to free sleep consultations, stress-reduction advice and yoga classes. The politically connected can get back rubs courtesy of the media organization (with a choice of massage oils). Over at the CNN Grill , an elaborate, fully functioning restaurant-turned-TV-news-set within the convention center's secure perimeter, food and drinks are on the house for...

In the week since modest gun control died in the Senate , those of us who don't think guns make the country safer have been inclined to blame a few cowardly senators whose votes could have shifted the outcome. Unfortunately, the problem is bigger than that. Contrary to what then-Sen. Barack Obama told us in his inspiring breakout speech to the Democratic convention of 2004, there is a blue America and a red America. And the colors have been deepening over the decade since Obama spoke.

FOR MORE than a decade, Mexico's congress was mired in three-way gridlock, making passage of desperately needed fiscal, economic and social reforms almost impossible. Now, under new president Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexicans are proving that political grand bargains can happen — and that democracies can tackle their toughest problems. In a matter of months, their legislators have approved groundbreaking shake-ups of labor law and education, stripping unions of their corrupt control over teaching positions and making it easier for...

Mr. Smith went to Washington. Now, Carlo Sibilia has come to Rome. The 27-year-old elevator salesman without a single day of experience in political office arrived in the Italian capital this month with 162 other freshman legislators from the Five Star Movement — a Web-based force whose success in recent elections has the newcomers suddenly bidding arrivederci to politics as usual in Italy. For 60 million Italians and political junkies of every stripe, the triumphs of a movement encompassing...

Democrats and Republicans may be worlds apart on most things, but at their headquarters just two blocks away from each other on Capitol Hill, each is confronting the same question: Have political parties lost their purpose? In the wake of two presidential defeats, the Republican National Committee on Monday unveiled its Growth and Opportunity Project , an effort to give the party engine a top-to-bottom tuneup. The winning side of last year's presidential election has been doing some reexamination, too. ...

Over the course of his protean career, Moises Naim has oscillated between being a student and practitioner of power. At the precocious age of 36, he was appointed Venezuela's minister of trade and industry and subsequently served as a director of Venezuela's Central Bank and executive director of the World Bank. He has been a professor of economics, a prolific columnist, an author of multiple books on international affairs and an...

Julia Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister, is fighting a two-front political war: The opposition party leader is ahead of her in the polls before the September election, and disgruntled members of her party are plotting to restore former prime minister Kevin Rudd— the man she ousted 2 1 / 2 years ago — to power. Gillard sat down this past week in Sydney with Washington Post senior associate editor Lally Weymouth and discussed her opponents, her relationship with...

TOKYO — South Korea's two largest political parties have both tried recently to reinvent themselves. The liberal party merged with a smaller faction, changed its name and revamped its leadership. The ruling conservative party came up with a name change of its own, promised an end to corruption scandals and vowed to "earn the public trust. " The rebranding attempts played to widespread voter concerns about the political crookedness — rampant cronyism, bribery and, more recently, tightening controls...

Regarding the March 3 front-page article " Obama sees 2014 as key to legacy ": I am a patient man, but this is ridiculous. We are a country still in semi-economic crisis after five years. We reached a political stalemate in President Obama's first two years, then sat in paralysis after the 2010 elections to see if the 2012 elections would bring in a Congress that was sufficiently on the same page with the president. And now, when the president no longer faces an election for the rest of his life, apparently we are going to use two of...

CAIRO — Egypt's largest opposition bloc said Tuesday that it will boycott the country's upcoming parliamentary elections, heightening the prospect of future instability after months of political crisis and damaging the credibility of the country's fledgling democracy. The National Salvation Front, a loose coalition of liberal and leftist political parties, said that it will boycott the late April vote because the Islamist government of President Mohamed Morsi did not consult it in passing a new electoral law and...