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In the years before becoming a full-time writer, Sirota worked as the press secretary for Vermont Independent Congressman Bernard Sanders, the chief spokesman for Democrats on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, the Director of Strategic Communications for the Center for American Progress, a campaign consultant for Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and a media strategist for Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont. He also previously contributed writing to the website of the California Democratic Party. For more on Sirota, see these profiles of him in Newsweek or the Rocky Mountain News. Feel free to email him at lists [at] davidsirota.com Note: this online publication represents Sirota's personal views, and not the official views of the organizations he works with.
SHARE Friday, June 14, 2013 Permanent Washington's Backlash to Edward Snowden
First and foremost, the backlash reveals that Permanent Washington doesn't work for We the People -- it works to protect itself. We know this because whereas Snowden is vilified for disclosing information that's inconvenient to Permanent Washington, those who leak classified information that is advantageous to Permanent Washington are left alone.
(13 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Bush Used the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret Service to Go After Opponents -- Where Was the Fox and GOP Outrage?
In terms of partisanship, Republicans now screaming bloody murder over the IRS allegations clearly don't care about the principles of equal protection, nonpartisan public services or impartial governance. We know this because most of them had nothing to say about the Bush administration's actions against the GOP's ideological opponents.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 11, 2013 Return Of The Anti-Muslim Bigots
Right now, the Republican Party is tearing apart at the seams. the GOP's unholy alliance of super-wealthy country clubbers and working-class cultural conservatives is now fraying.
They are grasping for any issue or cause that unifies the conservative audience across increasingly wide economic, cultural and class lines. Islamophobia is sadly one of the few things that can achieve that among Republicans.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 1, 2013 Rise Of The Conservative Revolutionaries
A civilized society should solve disputes through a democratic process and democratic institutions, rather than through the barrel of a gun. And while our democracy has been corrupted by Big Money, it still functions better than autocracy. In that sense, Churchill had it right when he said "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 4, 2013 Five Questions That Will Decide The Gun Debate
Because Congress is structurally designed to create gridlock, what happens at the state level doesn't necessarily translate into congressional action. So while even a state in the traditionally pro-gun Inter-mountain West can pass gun regulations, Washington may have more trouble doing the same.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 28, 2012 The Economic Normalcy Bias
...the root of one of America's most destructive traits: our obsession with materialism and consumerism.
(11 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 14, 2011 The new "Let them eat cake!"
In the midst of this prole-crushing economic emergency engineered by wealthy speculators and their political puppets, we now find ourselves watching those same modern-day Marie Antoinettes at once celebrating their station and begging for sympathy as if they were the real casualties of the decade-long economic slowdown they created.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 11, 2011 10 stories more important than Weinergate
An irrelevant congressman's bizarre behavior in a silly 140-character-limited medium strikes me as a tad less offensive and less worthy of media focus than at number of other less-covered stories that broke at the same time as the Weiner Scandal.
(8 comments) SHARE Friday, November 12, 2010 Thank You, Dick Cheney, For Giving Me the Proper Words
Evan Bayh and Third Way and The Democratic Strategist and the DLC and all the professional pundits and cable-TV zombies and D.C. spokesholes - all of you soul-raping corpses and sh*t-eating poindexters paid to appear on my television screen and scream at me about liberals ruining everything, please, I beg you on behalf of the silent irritated majority: Just go f*ck yourself.
SHARE Monday, May 17, 2010 GOP: Recession's Foreclosure Victims "Want a Homeless Life"
After their anti-tax zealotry left their city in the budgetary lurch, Colorado Springs Republicans have slashed their community's social services to the bone. We're talking big cuts to police, firefighters, park maintenance, public transportation - even turning off the city's streetlights (except, of course, in the wealthy areas!).
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 17, 2010 Corrupt Practices Accelerating the Decline of American Journalism
Are many of today's opportunity-maximizers destroying journalism? Clearly, yes -" and unless media sachems institute some basic ethics rules, the parasites within their ranks could end up making sure there's no journalism industry left to save.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, March 19, 2010 What's the Matter With Democrats?
Ever since Thomas Frank published his book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Democrats have sought a political strategy to match the GOP's. The health care bill proves they've found one.
(7 comments) SHARE Friday, February 26, 2010 Glenn Beck Finally Admitted His Great Desire: To 'Eradicate' Progressives
We owe Beck gratitude for using his keynote address to CPAC to so frankly outline what the conservative movement has become -- and why it repulses so many Americans. To wild applause, he labeled this alleged tumor of "community" the supposedly evil "progressivism" -- and he told disciples to "eradicate it" from the nation.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, February 5, 2010 Tax the Corporations and the Rich or Take Draconian Cuts -- the Decision Is Ours
No matter where we live, this same choice will soon face us all in some form. It is a choice embodied in President Obama's pragmatic initiative to end his predecessor's high-income tax breaks, a choice for which future local and federal elections will serve as proxies. Tax reform or draconian cuts, life or death -- the decision is ours.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 19, 2010 It's Not Mere Cynicism or Demoralization - More Likely, It's Humiliation and Alienation
After a 2008 campaign that saw Dems promise to genuinely take on the health care and financial industries, we've seen a 2009 that has asked Dem voters to fight for extremely small, extremely modest scraps. We've been relegated to having to mount fierce campaigns to keep things like the public option in the debate and not to stop trillion-dollar bailouts - but just make sure they have one or two flimsy strings attached to them
(9 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Why Is the Military Infringing on Obama's Decison-Making Turf?
The Washington Post insisted that Obama's failure to promptly back McChrystal's surge proposal could "dishonor" America, while the New York Times said no matter what the president wants, "It will be very hard to say no to General McChrystal."