Political Writing Portfolio

Shawn does not try to hide his political affiliation as a progressive, and is actually quite proud of it. He is a progressive - someone on the "near left" who understands that without some compromise, there is no functional version of our current American form of government. He prefers to work towards actually accomplishing goals, instead of just discussing and debating ideas that will never have any realistic chance of being accomplished. That insistent focus on realistic, achievable solutions often angers liberals - those on the "farther left" - more than it does those on the American political right. Still, progressivism has become a hallmark of Shawn's political work & writing, from his time working on the Obama For America campaign in 2008, to his years producing, writing, and creating content for hosts like Randi Rhodes and Stephanie Miller, through some of his most recent work in The Daily Beast.

For more than five years, Shawn's progressive viewpoint was also a key component of a project he worked on with nationally syndicated and award-winning professional political cartoonist, Paul Fell, called "The Daily Commentary." The Daily Commentary was part of "The Daily Felltoon," a weekday e-mail and social media newsletter that combined news aggregation with a short daily political commentary, and a couple of political cartoons. While the subscriber list for "The Daily Felltoon" was and remains private and cannot be shared, it can be verified that some of Washington, DC's most influential lobbyists, as well as some in Congress, the White House, and members of the national media were long-time subscribers. In the five-plus years of its run, all but a handful of editions of "The Daily Commentary" were written by Shawn. Further, each edition went through at least one round of editing, prior to posting. "The Daily Felltoon" began in January of 2009, and lasted through May of 2014, when the outside needs of the staff, including Shawn, necessitated a shutdown of the project.

Feel free to read any one (or several) of Shawn's pieces linked below to get a feel for his abilities as a political writer.