Hedrick Smith to speak on Sunday, September 8

||| FROM DOUG MARSHALL |||

Once again, Orcas Islanders will have the opportunity to hear political analysis from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and part-time Orcas Island resident Hedrick Smith. The one-time Washington Bureau Chief for The New York Times will offer his analysis of the 2024 national election campaign and the political challenges which our country faces going forward.

Interested? Mark your calendar for Sunday September, 4:00 – 5:30 pm, at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church Parish Hall. Tickets are required for indoor seating and may be obtained at Monkey Puzzle, Darvill’s, or The Office Cupboard for $5 each (which will help cover the costs of this event).

Before the mid-term elections in 2022, Smith gave a talk about the prospects of Democrats,Independents and rule-of-law Republicans joining forces in a ”Constitutional Coalition” to protect the constitutional system and fair elections against a bid by Trump’s MAGA movement to capture control of governments in battleground states by running slates of Trumpist candidates for governor, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. And that is what happened in the 2022 elections. The Trump strategy was blocked.

In this year’s talk, Smith will review the outlook for that “constitutional coalition” in the 2024 election, not just for the Presidency but for Congress and for various reform initiatives that are on the ballot. He’ll discuss what he is watching for in the homestretch of the campaign. Which voters are moving? In which ways? And why?

Smith also will explore whether today’s American institutions are strong enough to withstand any presidential abuse of power and threats to the security of our election system. Are our laws, institutions and ethical norms “dictator proof?” Or as we look beyond 2024, are reforms needed to strengthen our constitutional democracy?

Hedrick Smith spent 26 years with The New York Times. He was part of their team which won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the 1971 Pentagon Papers release. Then, in 1974, Smith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting from Russia and Eastern Europe, while he was the NYT Moscow Bureau Chief. He has written five best-selling books. Since retiring from the Times, he has produced and reported more than 50 hours of prime-time TV specials for PBS, one of which examined water pollution in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. For more than 20 years, Hedrick and his wife Susan Zox have summered at their home near Olga.