The uncivil war that continues

Sam Smith, 2012 - Next Tuesday’s election will be yet another battle in a civil war that we have been fighting for a century and a half. History books and the media tell us that the Civil War is long over, but in truth the South only lost the right to secede and to own …

The real race in this campaign

Sam Smith - The corporate media would have us believe that this election is a celebrity contest. In fact, it is a struggle between what remains of a constitutional republic and a potential level of destruction we haven’t seen since the South seceded. The Republicans offer us a choice between a dictatorial buffoon, the compulsively …

The new secessionists: The GOP secedes from history and progress instead of the union

Sam Smith - The current Republican Party is the most reactionary and destructive major political organization in American history since the secession by the South. In fact, a major portion of its power comes from the South. For example, almost 60% of Romney’s electoral votes came from states that seceded from the US. Harpers Magazine …

What NSA can teach us about dealing with right wingers

Sam Smith News that NSA staffers are suffering in morale was both cheering and instructive. Cheering because it’s nice to see a bunch that has been running America’s most prolific crime operation (at least in terms of victims per capita) lose some speed. Instructive because it suggests a better way of dealing with pathological narcissists …

The Second Confederacy

Sam Smith  When I started out as a reporter, the South was so powerful on Capitol Hill that some of my northern friends working there developed a bit of a southern accent. It was, after all, the official patois of a Congress run by the likes of Strom Thurmond, Harry Byrd and Russell Long.  Just …

Morning Line: A culture on its way out?

Sam Smith – I keep having this unfashionable notion that what we’re seeing on the right may be the last gasp of a culture that is on its way out. Still noisy, still powerful, it also feels much like the segregationist southerners of the 1960s desperately try to hold their rotten system as history cranked …

The Scrooge campaign

Sam Smith I thought there was something familiar about the current crop of GOP presidential candidates, but I couldn’t quite place it until I attended an excellent recitation of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol by Hudson Valley storyteller Jonathan Kruk. Within minutes, I realized that I had been observing Rick Scrooge, Ebeneezer Gingrich, Humbug Herman and …

How to tell radical Muslims from radical Republicans

Sam Smith Radical Muslims use bombs, planes and small arms to kill and injure Americans; radical Republicans use the budget process. Radical Muslims oppose Christianity; radical Republicans give it a bad reputation. Radical Muslims practice Sharia law; radical Republicans don’t care about laws. Radical Muslims would like to overthrow Western democracy; radical Republicans show them …

The GOP’s uncivil war

Sam Smith The GOP’s attack against an extraordinary range of once broadly accepted government principles and activities may represent the greatest rebellion against our political system since the Civil War. If this seems exaggerated, consider a bit of history. Since World War II, for example, there have been only two instances when Congress went truly …

Rise of the new mercenaries

Sam Smith One of the things that has perplexed me about the current chaos is how did so many Republicans become so bizarrely crazy so fast? The closest example that comes to mind is the McCarthy era – but that only targeted a progressive minority and not all union members and the middle class. Further, …

Tea Party can’t even get its name right

Sam Smith, 2010 - Like the historical event it claims to honor, the present day Tea Bag Party seeks superficial change even while remaining hostage to the very system it claims to challenge. The original Boston Tea Party superficially challenged British power over the colonies but, along with other protests of the time, ultimately sought …