Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt-Chapter 52 - 40: Have We Changed?

On the night of the Democratic Party primary, the vote count held no surprises.

Representative John Murphy defeated his challenger, Alex Cortes, by a massive margin of over thirty percentage points, successfully securing the Democratic Party’s official nomination.

In the upcoming midterm election, he would represent the Democratic Party against his Republican Party opponent.

And in this deep-blue district, winning the primary was tantamount to winning the general election.

To celebrate this hard-won victory, Representative Murphy held a grand victory banquet in the ballroom of a luxury hotel in Pittsburgh City Center.

Leo, Sarah, Frank, and a few other core members of the community center were invited to attend as "key figures who helped Representative Murphy win the election."

Frank, dressed in a suit, looked completely uncomfortable.

He kept tugging at the tie that felt like it was suffocating him.

"I really don’t get why we have to come to a damn place like this," he muttered to Leo, holding a glass of champagne. "This stuff tastes like horse piss. I’d have a better time drinking ice-cold beer with you in the prefab hut on the construction site."

Leo smiled but said nothing.

He knew this victory party wasn’t just to celebrate the win.

It was more like a political parade of power.

Representative Murphy needed to be here to display his strength and consolidate his position in front of all his supporters and opponents.

The ballroom was filled with all the bigwigs of the Pittsburgh Democratic Party.

City council members, heads of various district branches, Union leaders, and the entrepreneurs and lawyers who had provided Murphy with substantial campaign funds.

They wore magnificent evening attire, weaving through the crowd, congratulating each other, and sharing in the joy of victory.

On stage, Representative Murphy delivered a passionate speech of thanks.

He thanked all the voters who cast their ballots for him, all the donors who funded him, and all the campaign team members who worked for him.

Finally, he made a special mention of Leo.

"I also want to give a special thanks to a young man!" Murphy’s voice boomed through the hall via the microphone. "He is our Pittsburgh hero, Leo Wallace!"

"It was he and his team who, with their passion and wisdom, helped us win back the trust of the working class! They were the key to our victory this time!"

A spotlight fell on Leo.

The entire hall erupted in thunderous applause.

But beneath the applause, an undercurrent was stirring.

Halfway through the banquet, Murphy’s campaign manager, Karen Miller, glided elegantly through the crowd with a glass of champagne, heading toward Leo and his group.

She didn’t walk straight to Leo, but first approached Frank.

"Mr. Kovalsky, I must express my utmost respect for you." Karen’s face wore a sincere smile. "Your ground game organization during this primary was nothing short of a miracle. You and your Union brothers were our staunchest fortress in the working-class communities."

Frank was clearly unimpressed by this sort of flattery from a Washington politician.

He just grunted and took a sip of his champagne.

"We just did what we had to do."

Karen wasn’t bothered by his coldness.

She continued, "John and I both believe that a capable and prestigious Union leader like yourself shouldn’t be confined to a small stage like Pittsburgh."

"If you’re willing, John can use his connections in Washington to recommend you for a senior position on the executive board of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO."

"That would be a much broader platform, where you could be a louder voice for your working brothers all across Pennsylvania."

After hearing her out, Frank rolled his eyes.

"Save it, lady." He slammed his champagne flute down on a nearby table. "I, Frank Kovalsky, only want to work with my union brothers in this life. I have no interest in being a watchdog for you masters in Washington."

After saying his piece, he turned and walked toward the ballroom’s terrace without a backward glance, clearly intending to have a smoke.

The smile on Karen’s face stiffened for a moment, but it quickly returned to normal.

She picked up her glass again and walked over to Sarah, who was standing to the side.

"Miss Jenkins, I’ve heard so much about you," Karen said. "Even in Washington, I’ve seen the wonderful videos you produced for ’Pittsburgh Heart.’ Your media talent is absolutely first-rate."

Sarah was a bit overwhelmed by the compliment.

"Thank you for the compliment, Lady Miller."

"I hear you’re graduating from university next year, is that right?" Karen asked.

Sarah nodded.

"So, do you have any plans for your future career?"

"I... I haven’t really thought about it. I’ll probably stay in Pittsburgh and help Leo with some community work," Sarah replied.

Karen smiled.

"Sarah, that would be a waste of your talent," she said. "Someone as gifted as you should be in Washington, displaying your skills at the center of national politics."

She extended an incredibly tempting olive branch to Sarah.

"John’s office on Capitol Hill happens to need a Director of New Media Affairs. If you’re willing to come, the position is yours."

"A five-figure salary, all the benefits of a congressional employee, and what’s more, we can immediately help you pay off all your student loans."

"Most importantly," she lowered her voice, "you can get away from all these endless community squabbles in Pittsburgh and enter a high-level platform where you can truly influence national policy."

Faced with this sudden opportunity, Sarah’s heart began to race.

A five-figure salary, all student loans paid off, and a position in the heart of power in Washington.

For any young person about to graduate, uncertain about their future, and eager to prove their worth, this was an irresistible temptation.

She was, inevitably, swayed.

She didn’t flatly refuse on the spot like Frank did. Instead, she gave an ambiguous answer, "Thank you for your kindness, Lady Miller. This is a wonderful opportunity. I’ll think about it seriously."

Leo watched all of this from a short distance away.

He couldn’t hear a thing, but he understood everything.

He knew Karen Miller’s objective.

Divide, dismantle, and co-opt.

This banquet, seemingly to celebrate a victory, was in fact a battlefield targeting him, a rising political force.

After the banquet, Leo and the others rode back to the prefab hut at the construction site in Frank’s old pickup truck.

The atmosphere in the truck was unusually heavy. No one spoke.

Back in the familiar prefab office, Frank couldn’t hold it in any longer.

He ripped off the tie that had been bothering him all night and slammed it onto the table.

He glared at Leo and said furiously, "Leo, did you see that tonight? That’s the ugly face of those Washington bureaucrats!"

"They praise us to the high heavens on stage, but behind our backs, they’re trying to pick us apart one by one and swallow us whole!"

"They used us to win the election, and now they want to turn around and kick us to the curb! We can’t keep messing with these bastards!"

Sarah sat in the corner without saying a word, just quietly opening her laptop.

Frank’s rage continued to boil.

"Leo, we have money now—over two million dollars from the urban renewal plan! We have people! We have the support of the entire Pittsburgh working class! We have prestige! The whole city of Pittsburgh knows your name, Leo Wallace!"

"We should strike while the iron is hot and draw a clear line with that old fox Murphy. We should organize larger-scale labor movements! We should storm City Hall and blockade that damned Morganfield building!"

"We should force them to give the working class more rights and more benefits! That’s the real reason we started this fight in the first place!" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Frank believed in the most direct, purest form of street politics and class struggle.

Just then, Sarah, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up.

"Frank, are you insane?"

Her voice was tinged with an uncontrollable disgust.

"We fought so hard to get to this stable situation. We fought so hard to get a sum of money that can actually be used to change the community. What we should be doing right now is quietly getting the ’Pittsburgh Revival One’ project done right, spending every penny we have on tangible improvements, and actually making everyone’s lives better!"

"Not, like you said, getting involved in endless political struggles every day! I’m sick and tired of all the damned opposition research and conspiracies!"

Hearing Sarah’s words, Frank turned and stared hard at her.

"Sick and tired?" he said. "I think you’ve just been dazzled by that Washington salary!"

"Have you forgotten why we started this fight in the first place? Have you forgotten who saved the community center from being auctioned off?"

"You’ve changed, Sarah! You’ve become just like one of those politicians who only think about climbing the ladder!"

Frank’s words stung Sarah deeply.

She shot up from her chair, her voice trembling with agitation.

"I’ve changed? Frank, what right do you have to say I’ve changed?"

"I just want to quietly get some real work done, not like you, who only thinks about confrontation and playing the hero every day! You just want to use other people’s sacrifices to satisfy your own outdated, violent, and destructive dream of being a revolutionary hero!"

"You don’t actually care if the workers can really have a better life! You only care if you can still stand on the street and raise your fist in the air like you did back in the day!"

The two of them began to argue fiercely.

The conflict between them had completely erupted at this moment.

This was the first time since its formation that Leo’s small team had experienced such a serious rift.

Their demands each sounded reasonable on their own, but they seemed to be completely opposed and irreconcilable.

Leo stood between them, silent.

’My head is about to explode.’

In the end, the heated argument concluded with Sarah storming out and slamming the door.

"I’m going back to school tomorrow! I don’t want to be with you lunatics anymore!"

With that, she disappeared into the late-night construction site.

Frank, fuming, also grabbed his jacket and walked out of the prefab hut.

"Leo, you think long and hard about it," he said, leaving one last sentence behind. "Think about what kind of leader you really want to be."

In the empty prefab hut, only Leo remained.

He sat there, facing the engineering blueprint for the community renovation on the table, and felt a loneliness he had never known before.

For the first time, he realized that healing the rifts between his own allies was even more difficult than defeating a powerful enemy.