Last Thursday, Nashoba Journalists and Photographers traveled to St. Anselm College, in New Hampshire, for presentation by John Kasich discussing his recent run in the 2016 Presidential Election and his new book, Two Paths: America Divided Or United.

Kasich began this presentation expressing what he felt went wrong during his run for President last year. Being the Governor of  Ohio, Kasich felt like he couldn’t go making the same big promises that his main opponent in the Republican party, Donald Trump, was making.

“In course of running for president, something happened to me that never happened before, I was boring. Boring didn’t cut it. People didn’t want boring.”

During the election, Kasich saw political change before President Trump even took to office. President Trump’s extremely conservative beliefs pushed politicians, as well as the general American population, either further to the left or right, and no one wants to compromise.

“If you compromise, you’re a traitor.”

One of the issues that has shifted way to the right in the Republican party is the debate around climate change. While Global Warming was seen as a major problem in the past, the rise of the Trump administration has claimed to deny the existence of it at all.

“We don’t believe in anything around climate change? What’s up with that?”

With that in mind, Kasich did talk about a hopeful raise in the independent party. While Kasich ran as a Republican in the election, he is what many people consider to be a moderate.

Kasich also shared his thoughts on the rise of executive orders with the Trump Administration. With Congress being as slow as it is, Kasich expressed an understanding of why President Trump had been signing numerous executive orders. However, he explained the importance of the balance of power.

“There needs to be balance between an executive being able to do things, and an executive overstepping there boundaries.”

With America being divided politically by the election, Kasich communicated the importance of provoking change, and working together as a community to push the message up for the government to notice.

“If you think that these politicians in Washington are going to fix things, check under your pillow tonight. The tooth fairy is coming.”

Kasich encourages the people of America to keep “yelling, screaming, and marching” if they want to see change.

“Nothing gets solved if the people don’t work together to fix it.”

Lastly, Kasich closed his presentation conveying the importance of being kind to your neighbor, and if you want make a difference in your community, do not give up. Eventually your message will get heard.