"Neither right nor left but ahead" is the only political course for maverick journalist Sam Smith in this entertaining, myth-busting guide to a new American crossover politics. Witty and profound, opinionated and informative, Smith has important things to say to politically disaffected Americans of all stripes. This primer gives hope that the coughing engines and stripped gears of American democracy can be made to work again if we can recover our can-do spirit and practice a politics of common sense and common decency combined with a search for common ground.

In chapters such as "How to figure out why you need this book a diagnostic test for political deficit disorder," "How to stay alive a poker player's guide to the environment," "How to find things out despite the media and other obstacles," and "How to get along with other Americans living next to 250 million people who aren't quite like you," Smith conjoins hilarity and wisdom, education and provocation, giving us what we need to fix America and have a good time while we're at it.