The world of politics is one that is rife with division and tension, but it is also something about which so many people are passionate. And yet, for some, they can spend many years in the political world before realizing that it is no longer for them.
Michael Fedor is one of those people who realized it was something which he could no longer do. He spent more than 20 years working on congressional and senatorial campaigns, as well some presidential campaigns. But, in the past six years, there came a point where he soon discovered he could no longer partake in the political world full-time.
“In 2006, 2007, 2008, there were still people on both sides of the political spectrum in America that were willing to work together and to listen to one another and not demonize [each other]. I was someone who found it possible to work with Democrats and Republicans and Independents, and found that, as long as we were focused on the issues and the parties didn’t matter because, at the end of the day, they were trying to get good policy done.”
Fedor noticed around 2010 that there was a slight change taking place, and it was where political opponents were viewed more as enemies.
“I started to see campaigns I was working for come under more personal attacks by their opponents, or wage more personal attacks against the people they’re trying to beat in elections to such a degree that it made you feel dirty being a part of it.”
One of the last debates in which Fedor partook was in 2019 during a bid for a county office seat. It was a close race, but the attacks from opponents felt more like personal jabs than just a simple disagreement. In addition, there were times where it felt like Fedor was losing to people who didn’t come off as passionate about the voters.
“It was all personality and categorical things that I felt like I just could not be a part of it and want to devote my life and what energy I had to be part of something that made me feel so awful. In 2019, I was debating the other candidates and I had prepared myself and was sitting in front of this audience, giving heartfelt answers, and all of my opponents were reading answers from papers in front of them because they either didn’t know the answers or didn’t care to memorize their answers.”
At that moment, Fedor said he didn’t care about the outcome of the election. The most important thing to him was being honest with the people of his county. It was also around that time that he saw his time in politics begin to end.
“If I was going to be beat by folks who couldn’t answer honestly enough that they had to write down their answer for some basic things, so be it. They all won, and I lost, so I’ve turned the page, and I feel better for it. I feel like I’d be more true to myself and now pursue this other passion. If feels very exciting.”
Fedor has now put his focus on being a published author, with a new series of books called “The Bull Moose Series.” The prequel novella, “The Senate Deception,” is currently available for purchase, and the first book in the series, “What it Takes to Kill a Bull Moose,” is releasing on June 18th.
The main character in his series, Jackson Piper, starts off as a senator in “The Senate Deception,” who is faced with a tough challenge of reforming the filibuster rule in the senate. Throughout the book, it is never mentioned if Jackson is a Democrat or Republican, nor is it mentioned that his opponents are a particular party. Fedor mentioned that he didn’t want his audience to tune out because Jackson’s political identity differed from their own.
“I really am trying to play with this idea that people can look at Jackson Piper through their own lens and decide if he is more like them or not like them politically. The issues that matter 20 years in the future, some of them are foreign to us and some are still very relevant to us. What I’m trying to do is show that there will be a future where maybe the party identification does not matter anymore as much as the values that are behind the people in those parties. That’s why I’ve been really trying to, in this series, make the name of the parties irrelevant to some extent.”
However, with the first book in the series, “What it Takes to Kill a Bull Moose,” the Bull Moose Party becomes an important part of the story, Fedor added. The book takes place in 2044, and Jackson has now gone from the senate to running for president. And it’s at this point, after “The Senate Deception,” that Fedor is hoping people will come to like the characters in the book and the story that is evolving, rather than basing it solely on the fact that they belong to a certain party and being turned off by that mere fact.
“There is some danger in writing political fiction and political thrillers, because if you try to write for everyone, you end up writing for no one. So, I’ve got to find a way to have an audience and have some readership that does identify with what Jackson stands for, and I’m trying to do that in a way that I identify with, which is I feel like I’m a little party-less at the moment. I’m trying to pull some of those sympathies into Jackson and then putting them to the extreme in the novel.”
You can listen to the full interview above and also watch the full video version below. To find out more about Michael and to pre-order “What it Takes to Kill a Bull Moose,” you can visit his official website.
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