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Recently, I went on Fox & Friends — my first time on the program.
I woke up at 3:30 a.m. PT for the segment. While I slept, I had wild dreams — Fox anchor Ainsley Earhardt shushing me offstage during my interview comes to mind. I felt insecure, like I had nothing real to say. My nerves were overwhelming.
The day before, I called my best friend Pablo and asked how I should approach the interview. He told me, “Make a fair contrast, stay above the back-and-forth, and don’t get yourself in trouble by acting like you know more than you know.”
Afterward, I thought about my childhood roots.
I’m from the San Gabriel Valley. I went to Cameron Elementary, Edgewood Middle, and West Covina High. I started undergrad at Citrus College and eventually earned my bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College in Claremont.
I was shaped by the West Covina experiences I shared with friends — going to the Edwards Theatre, getting nearly arrested for sneaking in, checking out comic books from the library (and never returning them), walking up Cameron to eat at Sizzler (all-you-can-eat shrimp, baby!).
I took these memories — enriched by childhood bonds that turned into lifelong friendships — into the interview.
When I was 15, I met Pablo in West Covina. A few years earlier, I met my childhood best friend, who recently left West Covina for Nevada.
In December, I wrote an op-ed in The Hill about why he packed up and left town. His immigrant parents had bought a home in West Covina, fixed it up, and eventually, he raised his young children in the same house.
Last year, he left our hometown to chase affordability.
He voted for President Barack Obama twice, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and President Joe Biden. But in 2024, he voted against Vice President Kamala Harris — not for Donald Trump.
He no longer sees government as a source of good. Outside his childhood home: potholes, flickering lamp lights, shuttered storefronts, growing encampments. The parks he once played in no longer feel safe for his own kids.
The people in charge promised change. But what he saw was money from his pocket going toward community erosion and higher taxes.
My childhood best friend and I may view the role of government differently, but I’m not going to lose him to politics.
Recently, I watched prominent Democrats mock people who disagree — calling moderates “idiots,” dismissing young leaders like David Hogg as a “twerp.” That kind of politics doesn’t bring people in.
Politics has always tilted between right and wrong, good and bad policy, big and small government. But adulting — and therapy — taught me that when you call people idiots, they get defensive. And then politics becomes a vehicle for hate, not solutions.
During the interview, Earhardt asked if New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was planning a bid for president. I said her rallies across the country, including in Los Angeles, are drawing a sharp contrast between her ideas and Trump’s crusade to downsize government.
I believe the next president will be someone who speaks to local issues — who offers a strategy to fix broken streetlights and fill 8 million potholes nationwide. Someone who knows how to revitalize downtown centers and build a real continuum of care for the unhoused.
While Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez connects on national issues, Earhardt raised a fair point: how is she connecting with voters locally?
My litmus test: is any candidate addressing concerns like the ones that drove my friend out of California?
New York’s housing crisis is doing to others what it already did to him — driving working families out through unaffordable rents, outdated income metrics, underfunded nonprofits, inaccessible services, vacant luxury buildings, credit score discrimination, and mismanaged tax collection.
So the answer is no. He would leave New York, too.
“I was on Fox News,” I said to myself in a quiet hotel room after the interview. I took a walk before the sun came up. Scrolling through my phone, I saw a tweet: “Michael Ceraso has to be the dumbest Dumbacrat Fox has ever had on.”
Ouch.
Today, my childhood best friend and his family live in a neighborhood filled with Republicans and Democrats. They’re talking to each other. Their kids are friends. I see that as a kind of policy solution.It’s not easy to get past partisanship. For some, exposing yourself to criticism means walking the line between outreach and losing your identity.
But if we stop calling each other dumb, explain why we’re mad at government failings, acknowledge our hurt, and speak honestly about local issues —
We can shift away from national drama and partner to hold local and national politicians accountable for improving our neighborhoods.
Then maybe my childhood best friend can believe in government again.
Michael Ceraso is the founder of Winning Margins and Community Groundwork.