About

America’s Favorite Liberal is political opinion aimed at illuminating the issues of the day through a progressive lens. As such, much of our conversation is spent elevating smart ideas and debunking dumb ones. America’s Favorite Liberal exists because today’s battle for power isn’t right-left, big-small or conservative-liberal. Today’s battle for power is between smart, thoughtful ideas and distracting chatter intended to obscure consideration of real issues.

Guest submissions are welcome. Send your query to guest@averageliberal.com.

About America’s Favorite Liberal™ Jimmy Zuma…

 

After ten years haunting online political forums and much longer as a disability rights advocate, Jimmy Zuma decided to embrace long-form political commentary and started the online political journal, America’s Favorite Liberal. Since then, he has emerged as one of the left’s most direct new voices. Jimmy serves as a spokesperson for the value of education, logic, reason, facts, science, evidence – and especially honesty – in public discourse.

The latest addition to the publishers of Zuma’s work is the Tucson Sentinel in Tucson Arizona where he writes the weekly feature Smart v. Stupid. He also writes a weekly opinion feature for Technorati Politics called DC Water Cooler and is a frequent contributor to Open Salon and OpEd News.

In his personal life, Jimmy is deliriously, happily married to Suzanne. He has two children, Emma, who is 18  and attends Virginia Tech in a Political Science/English double major, and Jake who, even at 8, shares his father’s acerbic sense of humor.

Jimmy Zuma Historical Biography

Jimmy Zuma was born James Alwin Schmidt, in Cheverly, Maryland on August 1, 1955. His mother was a homemaker, his father a mechanical engineer at National Bureau of Standards (now NOAA.)  He has one sister, Joan, who is twenty years older. “Alwin” is a medieval-era name that means “friend of the little people.” He shares the middle name with every male predecessor as far back as anyone can remember.  Jimmy believes the name represents a personal mission for his family.

Jimmy’s early life in College Park, Maryland was unremarkable until – at age 16 – he and a friend made a prank phone call to a local hotline. The two were so impressed with how the call was handled, they volunteered the next day. Throughout high school, Jimmy would skip school to work at the hotline and he found the work very gratifying. It would have a major impact on his lifelong friendships and future career.

In his early 20s Jimmy spent five years in Tucson, Arizona in what he’s called, “the great adventure of my life.”

Zuma enjoyed a successful thirty-year career as a nonprofit administrator and disability advocate, notably as CFO of ReVisions, CEO of Gateway Youth Home and President of the Maryland Association of Psychiatric Support Services. The last decade of this career was spent as Founder and President of Winning Ideas, a management consultancy serving nonprofit organizations.

After finishing his first career, Jimmy went on to found, The Rider School, one of the east coast’s largest and most well known motorcycle riding schools.

When Jimmy began writing about politics, he adopted the nom de plume Jimmy Zuma and began the online political journal Smart v. Stupid. Soon after, he was invited to join the politics team at Technorati and offered a weekly opinion feature, DC Water Cooler.  The latest addition to the publishers of Zuma’s work is the Tucson Sentinel in Tucson Arizona, where his weekly feature is called Smart v. Stupid. He is also a frequent contributor to Open Salon, and OpEd News.

Jimmy is married to Suzanne Bond, a nonprofit executive. He has two children, Emma who is pursuing a Political Science/English double-major at Virginia Tech, and Jake who is 8 years old.