David Sirota

Sirota is a native of Abington Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He is the eldest son of Rob Sirota, a retired physician, and Karen Sirota, the former president of a local synagogue. Sirota has also described himself as an "intense" fan of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team while growing up, particularly of the players Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn. Sirota was able to meet Barkley in 1986 and have his picture taken with him. Sirota attended the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, where he was close friends with Adam F. Goldberg, who went on to create the TV series The Goldbergs. Goldberg's series, about his life growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, featured a recurring character based on Sirota in multiple episodes of the series. The character was also named David Sirota. Sirota attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University from 1994 to 1998, where he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science. While there, he worked as a reporter for the Daily Northwestern. He also worked on his first political race during his senior year. ==Career==

Political career, 1998–2008 Sirota's career in political campaigns began when he was a research director for Illinois State Senator Howard W. Carroll's unsuccessful run for U.S. representative in Illinois's 9th congressional district in the 1998 election; Carroll lost in the Democratic primary to Illinois State Representative Jan Schakowsky. In 1999, Sirota served as Dwight Evans's deputy mayoral campaign manager in Philadelphia. He was let go for "overzealous behavior" related to the creation of a fake website containing damaging racial comments attributed to Evans' opponent John White Jr. Evans said he believed that Sirota had not created the bogus page, but had discussed it with the person who created it, who was his friend and former college classmate at Northwestern. Sirota then became a fundraiser for Joe Hoeffel in his first successful campaign for the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district. From 1999 to 2001, Sirota worked as press aide and spokesperson for Bernie Sanders, who was then serving as the U.S. representative from Vermont. In September 2006, Sirota worked as a political consultant for Ned Lamont's U.S. Senate campaign. Lamont defeated Joe Lieberman in the primary, but Lieberman ran as an independent and defeated Lamont in the November election. In 2008, Sirota was co-chair of the Progressive Legislative Action Network (now renamed the Progressive States Network). He was a regular guest on The Al Franken Show and makes guest appearances on The Colbert Report, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, NOW, Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNBC, and NPR. He is a senior editor at In These Times, a regular columnist for The Nation and the Intermountain Jewish News, and a past contributor to The American Prospect. He has been published in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Sirota was a contributor to OpenLeft, a now-defunct progressive political blog. In June 2007, he replaced the late progressive columnist Molly Ivins with a column to be syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate. Sirota became a contributing writer for Salon in May 2011. From 2009 to 2012, Sirota was the morning host at the Denver progressive talk station KKZN. Sirota was initially filling in for Jay Marvin on his eponymous program; but Marvin was ultimately unable to return, and Sirota became the permanent host in 2010. Sirota also guest hosted for Thom Hartmann and Norman Goldman. On July 16, 2012, Sirota moved to sister station KHOW to co-host an afternoon drive program with former George W. Bush administration FEMA director Michael D. Brown, The Rundown with Sirota and Brown. In January 2013, after nearly four years in radio, Sirota parted ways with KHOW/Clear Channel. Insiders speculate the reason for the abrupt departure was friction between the two co-hosts; it left Brown with his own show. In March 2017, Sirota joined The Young Turks online broadcast network as a contributor, providing periodic investigative reports. In early 2018, after four years of reporting for the International Business Times as senior editor of investigations, Sirota left that publication. Sanders campaign 2019–2020 On March 19, 2019, the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign announced it had hired Sirota to work as a senior advisor and speechwriter. Sirota joined the Sanders campaign after fourteen years working as a journalist. In describing his role as a speechwriter for Sanders, Sirota stated, "But even though the position is called 'speechwriter,' nobody puts words in Bernie Sanders's mouth. He knows exactly what he wants to say and exactly how he wants to say it. So I'll be supporting him in doing these speeches in the sense of everything from research to data to incorporating examples and stories about what he's saying." As an example of the campaign's media criticism, Tracy cited an instance of the campaign's newsletter ("Bern Notice"): When the first in-house newsletter of Bernie Sanders's campaign landed in inboxes last August, its chief antagonist was neither President Trump nor a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, but rather The Washington Post and, as the email said, "the Washington pundits who are paid by the corporations and billionaires who own the media."Campaigning in Iowa a few days earlier, Mr. Sanders, the senator from Vermont, had accused The Post of withholding positive coverage because of his efforts to raise the minimum wage at Amazon, the internet retail giant founded by the newspaper's owner, Jeff Bezos. Several prominent journalists objected to the comment—a "full freak out," as the newsletter, which is called Bern Notice, put it."Reporters don't have to receive a call from Jeff Bezos," [the newsletter] said, "to know that their paychecks are signed by a billionaire with a well-known personal and corporate agenda—and knowing that agenda exists can shape overall frameworks and angles of coverage." Journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote, "Most critically, the key claim that made the article such a sensation – that Sirota's 'informal work for Sanders goes back months' and included 'quietly writing speeches' for the Senator – is entirely and demonstrably false." He endorsed Joe Biden on April 13. Jacobin In May 2020, Sirota joined Jacobin as editor-at-large. The Lever (news outlet) In April 2020, Sirota launched an independent news outlet, The Daily Poster. In May 2021, The Daily Poster moved from Substack to an independent website. running on Ghost. The name The Lever is inspired by a quote from the Greek mathematician Archimedes, who said, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Congressman Ro Khanna, and Congressman Chris Deluzio. ''Don't Look Up'' (film) In 2022, Sirota received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for conceiving the story for Netflix's ''Don't Look Up'' alongside co-writer and director Adam McKay. In describing the message of the film, Sirota stated: "Every politician is asked questions about the economy. What we have to do is bake that same attitude about climate into the coverage. The economy is the way we talk about politics. The livable atmosphere needs to be at the same level." Regarding the success of film, Sirota stated: "I never expected the movie to become a cultural phenomenon. ... I think the reason that happened is because it’s a movie about the here and now. This movie feels a lot like reality. Everybody has strong opinions on the here and now." == Books ==

Hostile Takeover In May 2006, Random House's Crown Publishers released Sirota's book Hostile Takeover. The first chapter of the book was published in The New York Times in July 2006. Sirota read sections of his book in public. In the book, Sirota argued that corporate interests are driving U.S. economic policy. The book became a The New York Times bestseller on July 9, 2006, entering at No. 23 on the nonfiction list. The paperback edition came out a year later. Sirota's Hostile Takeover (2006) was reviewed by The New York Times critic Tobin Harshaw who described Sirota as a "Montana-based blogger with a take-no-prisoners mind-set" with "an admirably organized mind". Harshaw applauded some Sirota suggestions as "admirably specific, occasionally realistic and arguably on the side of the angels" and capable of bipartisan support, such as his recommendations for "regulating malpractice insurance for doctors... restoring state control over class-action laws... (and) forcing chief executives to certify corporate tax returns so they face liability for fraud." Sirota responded to Harshaw's review in a letter to the editor. Sirota denied his book was critical of mainstream Democrats but aimed squarely at "exposing Republican hypocrisy". He described his position as a "centrist exploration of the corruption of the entire system" that "isn't the fault of just one party or another". While the Washington press corps tends to see him as an "activist", at one point he was criticized for skirting the rules about access to Congress, which would on some occasions deny activists access, by getting a "temporary intern's ID"; this gave him access to the Senate chamber, but he was criticized in The Washington Post afterward. It was ranked 20th on The New York Times bestseller list on June 15, 2008. The book was also listed on The New York Times Political Bestseller list for the month of July 2008. A mostly positive review of The Uprising from Publishers Weekly described the book as chronicling "how ordinary citizens on the right and the left are marshaling their frustrations with the government into uprisings across the country." The reviewer cited "entertaining case studies" with a "conversational" tone and a fast-paced narrative with "numerous high notes." In the book, Sirota attacks CNN star Lou Dobbs less for his "endless broadcasts on illegal immigration" but more for the way he "browbeats his staff and runs roughshod over the CNN management". Publishers Weekly states: Sirota argues that the combination of Reagan, the "candidate of nostalgia"; hypermilitarist movies that re-demonized communism; and sophisticated marketing campaigns glorifying the cult of the individual led to our current culture's narcissism and obsessive pursuit of wealth and celebrity. In his effort to fit current trends to his overriding thesis, Sirota occasionally makes some sweeping statements, such as claiming the military's public relations campaign was so successful that Americans "never dare question" the military, ignoring the numerous anti–Iraq War protests and the outrage over the Abu Ghraib photographs. But the many of his arguments are well informed and sparkle with wit and irreverence. In Wired, Jenny Williams states: Back to Our Future is about much more than just the decade of the '80s. The author also dives into how society brought back the culture of the '50s and '60s in different ways, for different purposes. He talks about how society is manipulating our memories and using the rhetoric to guide people's thinking and voting habits. ==Political views==

Sirota is a critic of neoliberal economic policies and has leveled criticism at the Clinton, George W. Bush, He has criticized the Democratic Leadership Council and other Democrats, who he claims have "sold out" to corporate interests and has argued that the term "centrist" is a misnomer in that these politicians are out of touch with public opinion. Sirota's article "The Democrats' Da Vinci Code" argues that leftist politicians are more successful in "red states" than the mainstream media have previously reported. He is an opponent of free trade policies, Sirota supported Sherrod Brown over Paul Hackett for the 2006 Senate election in Ohio and criticized Hackett's claims that he was "forced out" of the race by party elders as disingenuous. In 2008, Sirota stated on radio program Democracy Now! that he had cast an early vote for Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama. Sirota has been a strong supporter of the economic stimulus efforts of the Obama administration. However, he has criticized such efforts as insufficient and has strongly supported further stimulus efforts. Some other journalists and political analysts have criticized Sirota. In his article comparing two approaches to progressive politics, statistician Nate Silver disparaged Sirota's approach as "playing fast and loose with the truth and using some of the same demagogic precepts that the right wing does." Regarding Sirota's political analysis and projections, including his predictions during the 2008 presidential election, Al Giordano derided him as "an inverted compass: when Sirota says 'heads,' you can make a lot of money betting on 'tails. In 2016, right-wing commentators at the conservative National Review and libertarian Reason upbraided Sirota for his 2013 Salon article entitled "Hugo Chavez's economic miracle". Sirota wrote in 2013 that Chavez was "no saint" but also that his socialist and redistributionist policies had led to Venezuela's GDP more than doubling and reduced poverty to the third-lowest level in South America. According to critics, Sirota overlooked that Venezuela's economic gains were based almost entirely on petroleum exports. In 2018, Sirota argued immediate action must be taken against the influence and power of oil and gas corporations to fight climate change, and Democrats must choose a side. He asked: "Will our political class behold the fossil fuel industry's sociopathy and realize that we face an existential choice between profits and ecological survival?" ==Personal life==

Sirota lives in Denver with his wife Emily, and their two children. In June, she won the Democratic primary in District 9, based in southeastern Denver. In November, she won the general election, with 72 percent of the vote to Republican Bob Lane's 28. He has lived in various cities around the country including Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego, Washington, D.C., Helena, and Denver. ==Depiction in fiction==

A character based on Sirota was featured in multiple episodes of the ABC TV series The Goldbergs. ==Bibliography==