ABOUT

Pittsburgh, George Floyd Protests, 2020

I grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a steel town tucked into the Appalachian range. My father was a union staff representative and my mother was a homemaker. I attended the local campus of the University of Pittsburgh. 

My great transition in life arrived in 2011, when I left newspapers to work as a speechwriter and special assistant to the newly elected Republican governor, Tom Corbett. The day my hiring was announced, the office received a phone call from an outraged true believer demanding to know why the governor had hired, “that liberal, Dennis Roddy.” At the time, I was naïve. I thought the campaigns were partisan but governance required a broad embrace.

Four years later, I was fired by 12 million Pennsylvanians and went to work writing, filming and directing television commercials, assembling direct mail, producing radio spots, and counseling Republican political candidates.

Today, with the party now fascism-adjacent, and the opposition blind to any history older than the most recent issue of The Nation, I adhere to no core belief except friendship and an unfocused indignation. The friendship has been problematic, the indignation reliable.

Along with photos, this site offers some of my old political columns as well as current opinions on the continuing crisis that is American life in the 21st Century.

dennisroddy@icloud.com