Articles by Joel Searby

Social media is killing thoughtful citizenship. I see it and feel it every time I’m online. You do too. I get it. I really do. It’s so easy to get sucked into the vacuum of short bursts of Twitter snark, epic and ridiculous Facebook comment threads or the blissful ignorance of a filtered Instagram feed that takes you to some other, beautiful place where there is no politics — only iced coffee on vintage wood tables and sun-kissed, smiling people. But none of these tells the whole story. They’r...

Last night as I pulled out of the driveway with my 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter in the truck, an NPR story was running the audio of crying kids at a border detention facility. I usually turn the news off when they’re with me. But it was too late. My very sensitive daughter was immediately concerned. “What’s wrong with those kids,” she asked. “Why are they crying?” Kids aren’t conservative or liberal. They don’t think about media bias or political spin. They hear something. They proce...

For over a year a group of passionate, committed people have been working to build the infrastructure, grassroots support, and fundraising network to support serious, credible independent candidates for statewide office. We knew there were big barriers for independent candidates but we believed the time was right for America and the numbers were telling that story more and more every day. Some of this had been tried before with little success. It usually failed for one big reason, in my view: l...

Whatever your views on the tax bill, Roy Moore vs. Doug Jones or the Trump presidency, the last few weeks should trouble you if you love our country. Partisan pundits from each of the two warring factions have declared victory or stunning, breathless defeat, depending on the outcome for their team. These three recent flash points demonstrate for me yet again the dangerous and unhealthy times we are in. Each of these represents clearly the deep divides that drive our politics right now. It worr...