About Political Hangover

Political Hangover is a publication, a project, and a place for people who believe America still has a shot. That is, if we can cut through the noise, remember the founding principles, and talk to each other like grown-ups.

It’s where political history meets personal experience and timeless ideas confront a chaotic present.


Two Projects, One Purpose

The Federalists Reloaded (Published Tuesdays)

This is where we test-drive the Constitution under modern traffic conditions. We take the original Federalist Papers, those urgent essays from Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, and pit them against our fractured states, broken budget process, and Congress's ongoing group identity crisis.

Each post blends serious historical analysis with modern policy failures, pop culture metaphors, and a big question:

Can the founding ideals still hold up in a post-truth, post-budget, post-shame political era?

We think they can. But it’s going to take work.


Political Hangover (Published Fridays)

This is my story. Political Hangover is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of my time in politics from Capitol Hill to the Governor’s Office of South Carolina, including Mark Sanford’s Appalachian Trail implosion and everything that came before and after.

It’s about how we govern, how we fail, how we recover, and how you find your integrity in a world that rarely rewards it.


What We Believe

We believe in ideas that used to be considered common sense:

  • Free markets work better than central planning

  • Government should be limited, but functional

  • Fiscal sanity isn’t optional; it’s urgently necessary

  • Civil liberties, especially free speech, are foundational

  • Our differences aren’t threats, they’re the start of real dialogue

This isn’t a site for shouting. It’s a space for persuading.


Why This Community Matters

This isn’t just a publication. It’s a community. A community for people who are done with tribalism but still believe in civic duty.

For people who want to argue policy without burning bridges. For people who know that fixing the country means starting with the conversation.

We’re building that conversation here. In time, I hope we can build essays, podcasts, comments, live discussions, and guest contributors who bring new angles and lived experience.

Whether you lean left or right or are just tired of the political theater, if you’re here for ideas, we want you in the room.


Subscribe and Join the Conversation

We’re not here to waste your time. No clickbait. No echo chambers. No overpriced merch.

Just honest writing, thoughtful debate, historical clarity, and a place where the founding generation might recognize the conversation. Maybe not the Wi-Fi password, but the spirit of it.

Subscribe to get:

  • New essays and columns straight to your inbox

  • Updates on upcoming discussions and community calls

  • Access to a smarter, more civil political conversation

  • And maybe, just maybe, a little hope

I mean, I’ll take your money. Thanks to all the folks who’ve pledged and all those who will. You never know, one day it might be worth it.


Welcome to Political Hangover. Let’s talk like citizens again.


About the Author

Scott English is a longtime political fixer turned nonprofit executive who has worked everywhere from Capitol Hill to the South Carolina governor’s office. A native of Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the first in his family to graduate from college, he’s spent a career navigating the messy middle of public service. Political Hangover is where he sorts through the chaos, remembers what’s worth fighting for, and finds the humor in all of it.

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Principled debate, personal insight, and free-market ideas aimed at restoring constitutional government and civil dialogue.

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Former Chief of Staff to Governor Mark Sanford, Capitol Hill veteran. CEO of a non-profit organization. Political has-been and stamp collecting enthusiast. I've made international news for finding a lost governor and a lost stamp.