Unity and Hope to Division and Despair

November 6, 2016

Unity and Hope to Division and Despair

Yet another election in which we are holding our noses while we vote. Yet another election that further divides the country. Yet another election of vitriolic and slanderous speech. Yet another election of divisiveness, dispassion, and desperation.

It is hard to believe that only 8 years ago, I was going around the country campaigning for a man who talked about what unites all of us–conservatives and liberals; Democrats and Republicans–as Americans. Only 8 years ago, the sensation of hope was palpable; hope that we could come together as Americans to elect a transformative leader who would unite us in promoting social justice; in saving the worldwide economy; and in hunting down and killing all those responsible for 9/11.

We accomplished all those things as a united America. We promulgated a law, which required some Republican support, which provided health insurance to 20 million uninsured Americans; both Democrats and Republicans voted for Obama’s stimulus package and together we saved the worldwide economy; through Obama’s drone program , which enjoys bipartisan support (Although he received severe criticism in the left, even from former supporters, i.e., Cornell West), we decimated al Qaeda and gaining ground on ISIS. When President Obama gave the order to take out bin Laden and it succeeded, we united in celebration. Both conservatives and liberals joyfully took the streets in celebration of an American victory.

Throughout the course of this long (way too long) presidential circus… I mean contest, we have taken giant steps backwards. Not one candidate on either side of the primary process picked up Obama’s mantle of unity. There were no impassioned speeches about the values that we all share as Americans. There we’re no message of hope; no calls for bipartisanship; no passion in general.
Instead, politicians saw the potential opportunities to win an election by seizing and magnifying the issues that divide us: class, race, and religion. Both parties’ candidates are responsible for destroying the opportunity to build upon the transformation that this country underwent during the 2008 election. We overcame class divide, racial bigotry, and religious intolerance in that election cycle. After the election, intellectuals and pundits spoke of the post-racial era. We were united as Americans.

There was not one hero who served to unite us in the 2016 election. Even Senator Bernie Sanders, who shares some of the more progressive components of the President’s ideology, utilized class divide to garner support. He rightfully highlighted the maltreatment of the working and middle classes in this country, but some of the most important progressive figures in this country are members of the upper class–figures who call for the upper classes to pay their fair share.

Hillary is more concerned about winning the election by appealing to certain segments of society than she is about promoting a message of unity. She does not talk about what unites us as Americans. Instead she talks about how Trump insults the segments of society whom she is trying to appeal to. And that is why she is having difficulty with certain demographics such as working class white men. Although Sanders and Clintons diveseness are subtle, the ramifications are not.

Trump, however, is not so subtle in utilizing divisive speech and tactics. The vicissitude that American Politics underwent in four years is surreal. Obama spoke of unity, and that progressives can win elections when we refuse to campaign as black people or white people, or any other specialist interest group, but as progressives united by our shared empathic values. Demagogues like Trump often divide people with shared economic interests with subliminal racist rhetoric. This lifelong racist did not even both with the subliminal component of that strategy. He called Mexicans murders and rapists; categorized all Mus

,.i.Za; Trump dividedbrought about by the rise of the American Far Right in the . Racists I’m h.ave come out from under their scum laden rocks and into the mainstream. David Duke, the former grand wizard of the KKK, is running for Louisiana’s US Senate seat and has not been shy in spewing his hateful, racist speech. Senator Kirk of Illinois attacked his opponent–a Daughter of the American Revolution–at a debate for having an immigrant parent. Donald Trump retweets tweets from Alt Right–a white supremacist hate group. He has a cozy relationship and even hired Alt Right’s racist media consultant, Steve Bannon. Trump called Mexican immigrants murderers and rapists; made anti-semetic comments at the Jewish American Republican Conference; and has called for Muslims to be banned from immigrating to the United States, serving as a great soundbite for ISIS to recruit more terrorists. He has done more to divide us in this election than any other candidate in United States History.

The 2016 election is the antithesis of the 2008 election. We have reverted to a state of tribalism on both sides of the partisan divide. The candidates do not deserve all of the blame (just most of it). The media napped through the primary process and highlighted the divisevess of this election only after the damage had been done. We the people deserve some of the blame as well. We reverted to our more base nature of selfishness and tribalism. We wonder which of the candidates will serve our most immediate needs–which candidate represents my demographic.
A message of hope and unity brought us together in 2008, and through that unity we overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We saved the American economy, beat al Qaeda and killed bin Laden, ensured that 30 million formerly uninsured Americans received health coverage, etc. This election begs the question: what is it that makes us American? Are we just separate, competing demographics in constant confict? Or are we one people, united by our shared values: love of democracy and freedom, love of country, and our belief that as a united people of great ingenuity we can overcome anything?

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Paul Adams MSM

I grew up in the Old Harbor Housing Development in the Irish American neighborhood of South Boston. Currently, Southie has gained fame for being the home of gangsters, powerful politicians, and as the toughest inner city neighborhood in America. It is the home of Speaker of the House McCormick; but it’s the home of three housing projects as well. It’s the home of Senate President Bulger; but it’s also the home of Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger—the most infamous gangster of our generation. I survived the streets of South Boston by learning to defend myself in a boxing gym with national champions and professional boxers. I still box to this day. I also am very blessed to come from a family that values education and demands top academic performance. Out of my Irish grandmother, who has her high school diploma, she had a daughter that put herself through nursing school as a single mom (my mother); out of four grandchildren, I went to Boston College High School founded in 1864 by the Jesuits as Boston College, and the girls went to Fontbonne Academy. Both are college preparatory schools run by the Jesuits and the Sisters of Saint Joseph, respectively. These Catholic orders inculcate their students with the belief that we are meant to be of service to others. Three of the four have Bachelors Degrees. One has a graduate degree, and I am a graduate degree candidate at Suffolk University in marketing. My BA is in political science. I ran a multiplicity of Boston campaigns. I managed campaigns and was field coordinator. However, as field coordinator, my role was that of a campaign manager. I developed the theme, message, and strategy. The candidate and I start off with a SWOT analysis, and go from their. It requires tremendous trust for a public official to put her reputation in your hands, to trust you with their deepest, darkest secrets, and to develop a working relationship, so that the candidate does not need to be a campaign manager. Not all candidates are political scientists who grew up in politics and knew that campaigning was one of their callings. I remember taking on a campaign managing role in one of my campaigns en medias res, and it was a campaign manager’s worst nightmare: I had an articulate, courageous, progressive candidate from a great Latino family, including a father who was a Boston Public School teacher. However, he knew not how to campaign. I proudly took over that campaign. That candidate went on to serve as the Boston Coordinator for Kennedy’s U.S. Senate bid. I ran a presidential campaign for a labor union, and I needed to utilize my Southie street smarts to come out with the win. I worked for the Obama ‘08 Campaign as a co-founder of South Boston for Obama. I then worked for him for a year in NH, where I got to meet and speak with him. I served in two branches of government. I worked for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (public defenders), and, as an Adams, who going all the way back to John Adams, believed that the keystone to free society was fair and proper representation under the law for all people, no matter the court of public opinion. I also worked in the legislative branch for a statesman named Senator Hart. I did constituent service work, which was so rewarding. I got to give back to a community that gave me the opportunity to achieve my dreams and goals. As an undergraduate at Suffolk University where I served as the President of the Pre-Law Association and graduated with a 3.4 GPA, I was honored to be given a scholarship to study the effects of fascism and communism on Central Europe after writing a paper about my own family’s tragic experiences in Poland during Nazi occupation. I completed an independent study with a brilliant political scientist, Kenneth Cosgrove, PhD., author of Branded Conservatives, opened my eyes up to the ways in which conservatives successfully utilize modern marketing techniques to win elections. They shifted the country to the right with their use of marketing strategies. I am currently an MSM (Masters in Science in Marketing) candidate at Suffolk University. I am proficient with Wordpress and Squarespace; Google Analytics; social media advertising campaigns; and other forms of marketing like STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning). This site will be the home of my new blog that will discuss politics and marketing. I hope my life experience and my education in these fields creates a healthy dialogue that can lead to higher truths.

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