A note from a western Mass. neighbor: As a sophomore at Amherst College in 2023, I studied James Baldwin. Through our professor’s academic relationships, we were the first students at any educational level in the world to access his high school newspaper articles. His writing became fundamental to my life, especially his philosophy: to truly love something, like say your country, you must be willing to criticize what holds it back.
In 2020, I interned for Congressman Richard Neal after an internship in Springfield’s mayor’s office. I cherish that beginning to my life as a grassroots organizer and political thinker. But gratitude doesn’t stop me from asking whether the man who introduced me to politics still deserves our confidence.
At Amherst, I studied why loyalty to a party can outlast our belief in new ideas and each other. Whether you have a D or R next to your name is only the beginning of a conversation about politics. The bigger issues have always been wealth and power. A handful of people in the top tax brackets control our media, our food, our education, our energy, and, simply, our lives. While we argue over party colors, those comfortably removed from our fights watch us divide ourselves. Our divisions serve them. So do many politicians.
Understanding this did not make me braver. I told myself I needed a remote job somewhere obscure to make money and mind my business. Understanding became an excuse to leave things alone.
Then I met Nadia Milleron.
Ads linking her to MAGA made me want to understand her positions myself. Surely a conversation was still permitted. Remember? You can pick up the phone and talk to someone you might disagree with. I met her family and supporters. As someone with a spiritual approach to analysis, what I found was far from the claims made by Neal’s campaign and the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Those dark, dystopian “MAGA Milleron” ads ultimately sent me to her office to offer the campaign help.
Nadia is a mother, a lawyer, and a public advocate. After losing a child, she worked tirelessly so other families might be spared that loss. She turned grief into public responsibility. That spoke to me deeply, and so does what she still wants to do. What she will do.
Have you needed medicine your insurance wouldn’t cover? Nadia wants to erase that problem through universal healthcare that costs less without removing your doctor or care. Is that so radical? Maybe. Maybe not.
Did your parents work two jobs? She wants families to do more than scrape by, reinvesting in our communities and wages instead of sending taxes overseas. Nearly $700 billion in taxes from corporations and wealthy folk goes uncollected. Meanwhile, if you owe a penny, you’re first on the IRS’s list! I know that personally. Who could have fought harder for you through the Ways and Means Committee? Richard Neal, as chairman and ranking member.
She supports labor, bodily autonomy, clean energy, and better wages. She opposes war.
What scares me is a representative exploiting people’s fear of Trump to stop a farmer from the Berkshires from upending his hold on western Massachusetts politics. Fear conveniently avoids accountability.
Instead of arguing against her positions, including term limits and limiting funding for war, his campaign attacks her personally. That is how someone who has accepted more campaign funding from corporate organizations than most any other member of Congress keeps power. We are asked to fear what might happen if he leaves, rather than examine what happens while he stays.
My internship makes this harder to watch. I see a campaign asking voters to fear Nadia rather than giving them a reason, beyond a few dollar signs, to trust him. After 38 years, surely he should have more than recycled talking points. He understands our fears about Trump, and instead of addressing them, he used them for his campaign.
But Nadia is MAGA? Nadia threatens our empowerment? To understand people’s fear and turn it against their right to seek change is an extraordinary betrayal. I begrudge being told to lower our expectations while remaining endlessly grateful to those we elect to improve our lives.
That brings me back to Baldwin. Loving something means being willing to criticize what is happening to it. Nadia is running because she cares deeply about the people she hopes to serve — and because she believes we deserve better. So as you prepare to vote on Nov. 3, remember that elected seats belong to us, and you can always expect so much more.
Shane L. Dillon of Springfield studied political science at Amherst College and engages with politics in western Massachusetts.