Ana Marie Cox: Rick Perry’s ‘awesome’ adventure. Rand Paul’s Hamptons weekend. Which classist lie will you believe this summer?

Ana Marie Cox: The price of constant war is constant investigation. The American strikes are happening – now let’s hold Obama and his military accountable

Ana Marie Cox: Lamar Alexander is not alone – 2014 is the year incumbents can’t lose, and that says more about American despair than Tea Party rage

Ana Marie Cox: Maybe ... but Republicans first have to acknowledge that there’s a problem to be solved

Ana Marie Cox: But if the goal of his second term was broad, lasting policy changes, it’s disappointing to everyone except liberal fundraisers

Ana Marie Cox: Billionaire mega-donors care less about funding parties than enacting policies. Others are following suit

Ana Marie Cox: Can you have a serious discussion about ending poverty without mentioning women? The Republicans' big thinker is going to try

Ana Marie Cox: Private prisons have taken up immigration as a profit center, based on assembly-line 'justice' of the Bush era – and kept alive by Republican presidential contenders who look the other way

Ana Marie Cox: How is a concealed-carry gun permit OK to get in the voting booth, but an elderly woman's Medicare card is not? Liberals have argued. Now it's time for a verdict

Ana Marie Cox: The backlash machine has finally backfired with a generation that cringes at old people yelling at gay clouds

Ana Marie Cox: Republicans need a candidate who can do a quick two-step on immigration. Who better than a Texan?

Ana Marie Cox: Americans are still OK with guns, and until we can change that, Michael Bloomberg's millions won't mean a thing

Ana Marie Cox: Don Draper's psyche is nothing to base a political strategy on

Ana Marie Cox: The legend of Tom Tancredo will not continue. But is this really a state turning purple, or one turning blue so fast it just looks moderate?

Ana Marie Cox: She is truly well off, and she is a truly terrible class warrior. And in the 2016 election, that's a true flaw

Ana Marie Cox: It took assault rifles at Chipotle, but bad PR may be the fault line to fracture the sane and un-sane, eventually giving America the kind of moderate pro-gun group it needs

Ana Marie Cox: Critics of a foreign policy of 'neglect' are still living in George W Bush's fever dream of rage and fear. The public is fickle, but we're willing to be patient about war again

Ana Marie Cox: Beating a House majority leader for the first time doesn't mean DC needs to hail the conquering Tea Party hero

Ana Marie Cox: Forget right or left. Dark money in politics means you'll never know which 'independent' candidate's views were on the market

Ana Marie Cox: There are two men who look like they can take down Hillary Clinton, and the growing power of libertarianism is not to be underestimated