About My Stephen A. Smith Column...
He's not the answer, but he's worth studying
A few weeks ago, I penned a column for the Los Angeles Times with the headline: “Democrats, Do Not Ignore Stephen A. Smith.”
As expected, a lot of people in Democratic Party circles and progressives on social media vehemently disagreed with my piece. I suspect the majority of these people didn’t actually read the entire column, but just reacted to the headline or the tweet (are we still allowed to call them that - oh well) promoting the piece. A lot of comments were made suggesting I wasn’t a “real Democrat” or that I had gone full coward and was embracing the new Trump/Musk World Order. Others went back to the tried-and-true attack line of “what would you expect from a former Republican.”
Let me be perfectly clear: 1.) I am a Democrat and have been a Democrat since early 2016 (BEFORE Trump was even the GOP Nominee) - it’s been almost a decade since I was a Republican. 2.) I DO NOT believe Stephen A. Smith is the answer to the Democratic Party’s problems nor do I believe he is going to run for President 3.) The idea that I would in any way, shape, or form endorse/support/normalize Donald Trump (or Elon Musk) is ridiculous and anyone who says/think that about me can go Fuck themsleves.
Now that we got that out of the way, let me tell you why I think Stephen A. Smith is worth studying - as I wrote in my piece:
“Every day on his nationally syndicated radio show and on ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith offers a master class in storytelling, debating, reporting and entertainment…Smith effortlessly blends charisma, passion, knowledge, controversy, humor and emotion to provoke conversation and debate. To me, that sounds like a recipe the Democrats could use right now…The American people are thirsty for disruption and are abandoning legacy institutions left and right. Communication skills supersede a political pedigree or public policy knowledge. If Democrats think the best counter to Trump and the MAGA media machine are a bunch of traditional politicians with traditional resumes, well, to quote Smith, they must be out of their damn mind.”
Tell me what exactly is so objectionable about writing that? Tell me that when you look at the Democratic Party and the Chuck Schumer’s and the party “leadership” and respons to Donald Trump/Elon Musk so far that we couldn’t use a MasterClass in commuications strategy & tactics.
That’s really the ONLY point I was making and for so-called progressive Democrats who you would think want us to get the better of the Trump-Musk-MAGA cult to come after me and accuse me of being some kind of GOP plant or puppet is assoning and quite frankly, makes me want to leave the Democratic Party alltogether because why bother trying to help those who would rather sit on their throne of rightesousness and condescension than actually get the job done?