Your Own Worst Enemy

In a parody of the 2016 American presidential election, Your Own Worst Enemy explores the devolution of human nature when it comes to politics. Stacey thinks she is running unopposed for student body president, until Julia, a newcomer, and Tony, the school’s stoner, both enter the race. As the candidates and their campaign managers figure out ways to one up each other, and defeat the other candidates, we see a slightly exaggerated portrayal of how identity politics can be misused and the original message lost in the mess. In a revolving multi-person POV of Julia, Stacey, Tony, Kyle and Brian, we see the countdown towards the student body elections from all angles. Each of the people in it had their own reasons for getting involved, be it misguided altruism, an effort to seem mature, just the hankering for chocolate milk in cafeteria, or a sense of feeling power. I feel the most character development was done in the case of Julia’s arc so I’ll start with that first. Her arc is the most important issue in this story: her ethnicity and race paint a target on her back and is used to launch an opening volley into this battle. Julia herself doesn’t know what race she belongs to, thanks to a close-lipped mother but due to her surname, everybody assumes she is Latina and the Latinx majority in the school flock to support her. Her message is probably naive in the start, but by the end she realizes she has a chance to make actual change, and the ideas on how to make the school year more inclusive. Stacey, on the other hand, is an experienced student politician with a good sense of social issues and has worked hard to get to this position, but her desire to do good things is often overshadowed by her cold political sense to the point that it sometimes seems she only is an ally for political benefit, and her personal troubles often leak into her good judgement. She also has a take-charge nature, which means she has been taking care of her father when her mother dumped them both, but that very nature is seen as distancing by her peers (remind you of someone?). Brian, who has been her best friend and campaign manager is stuck between his friendship and his feelings (and frequent boners) for Julia. Tony – well, he is only a Trump in that he doesn’t care about public service and doesn’t have what it takes for the job – is being manipulated by Kyle into blowing up what could have been a good election race and essentially bring down the whole level. Kyle, a nihilistic little brat who embodies chaotic evil at just 14 years of age, should have been watched more carefully because he seems the type to be being radicalized by some alt-right peeps. The story also goes into what good politics could like, if people stopped to listen to diverse opinions, acknowledged privileges and knew when to be an ally instead of drowning out voices. It takes a realistic approach to the situation, and present the characters as all flawed in their own way, but still being able to do good if they acted together. It talks about how sensationalization, unfair methods, manipulation, all in the context of the small pool of a student body, but also embodies the general spirit of how politics is in this current age. It also mentions the current social issues, and how they have impacted the discussion and voter engagement. And the multiple POV worked so well for this story, specifically because it kept the story from dragging in any particular parts, and by switching characters keeps your interest going. Perhaps the only parts I did not really like were how the ending itself was rushed into, and the way Brian’s and Stacey’s dynamic was changed a bit towards the end to justify her anger towards him. In my opinion, there didn’t need to be a romantic angle involved at all? Stacey particularly didn’t seem like she would worry about that, so it seemed a bit out of character for her there. Overall, a good satirical look at American political issues.