America: From a Fallen Child Star to the Head of the University of the West

Chapter 94

By the time Sean and Kelly returned to their makeshift campaign headquarters in Pasadena, it was completely dark in Los Angeles. The house was brightly lit, and several laptops, takeout pizza boxes, and half-empty energy drink cans sat on the long table in the living room.

Matthew pounded away on his keyboard, Vincent leaned against the window talking on the phone, and the whiteboard on the wall was covered with key points of today's debate and records of audience reactions.

It seems the real war has only just begun.

Although he appears to have won the debate, he has not yet translated that advantage into a real political advantage.

After thinking it over, Sean took off his coat and casually tossed it onto the sofa armrest.

He appeared to be in complete control on stage, but after more than an hour of intense competition, it would be a lie to say he wasn't exhausted.

"Welcome back, debate star." Vincent turned around, a rare smile on his face. "Live viewership data shows a peak audience of 2.3 million. Social media buzz has surged by 400% in the past three hours."

"What's Charlie Kirk's reaction?" Sean asked, picking up a bottle of water from the table and taking a sip.

Matthew looked up: "His team posted a statement on Twitter saying that today's debate was a fruitful exchange of ideas and they were pleased to see the younger generation engaging in serious discussions on fundamental issues." Very official wording, but the comments section exploded.

"What does 'exploded' mean?"

"This means that his supporters and your supporters—or rather, the newly emerging supporters—are engaged in a fierce battle!"

"Take your pick," Matthew said, turning his laptop screen toward Sean. "Look, your topic has climbed to third on the national trending list. The most popular tweet is: 'I thought Charlie would crush that washed-up actor, but now I'm a little doubtful.' It has 42,000 likes and 18,000 retweets."

Sean leaned closer to the screen. The comment section below that tweet was a battlefield:

@Conservative Warrior: Wavering? And two-faced? Just because of a few nice words? Charlie exposed the hollow nature of atheistic morality; Sean Penn was just playing word games!

@RationalThinker: To be fair, Pan's argument about the separation of church and state makes a lot of sense. We cannot use the standards of one religion to judge everyone.

@Governor of California: Without God, all morality is meaningless. Mr. Pan may be a good person, but it's unlikely that Mr. Pan is a good person at all.

Rachel came out of the kitchen carrying two cups of coffee. She handed one to Sean: "Sean, your phone's been ringing off the hook. CNN, MSNBC, Fox all want an interview. A reporter from The New York Times also emailed me, saying they want to commission an in-depth report."

"Um----"

Sean never expected to become a celebrity again. Just as he was considering whether to accept, Kelly suddenly walked in from outside. He had just left something in the car.

"Don't rush to agree!"

Everyone immediately looked at Kelly, who interjected, "We need to develop a unified follow-up communication strategy. Today's debate is just the first round; the real battleground is on social media, in the public's perception."

Matthew said, "I contacted Sarah. The team in Pennsylvania is ready to cooperate. Emily and Allen have designed a communication plan and want us to take a look."

"Let me see now," Sean said.

So Matthew opened a file. It was a detailed social media campaign plan titled "Plan 1: Turning Debate Influence into Political Capital".

The plan is divided into several phases:

Phase 1 (24 hours after the debate): Select the most compelling moments from the debate, edit them into short videos of 30-60 seconds, and release them on multiple platforms.

At the same time, a topic was launched on Twitter, inviting netizens to share their views on the origins of morality, without requiring any belief or stance, only requiring true stories.

Phase Two (24–72 hours): Release longer content, including the full video recording of the debate, in-depth analysis of the three topics by Sean's team, and polite questioning of some of Charlie Kirk's arguments.

Meanwhile, Allen will organize in-person discussions in Pennsylvania, inviting local residents and college students to watch the debate videos and engage in dialogue, and record highlights of these dialogues for secondary dissemination.

Phase Three (72 hours later): Based on the materials and topic popularity accumulated in the first two phases, a series of short films, "Finding Common Ground," will be launched to showcase how Americans of different faiths and backgrounds practice morality, build communities, and transcend differences in real life.

"I think, Mr. Pan—" Matthew added, "we could invite some centrist or even moderate conservative opinion leaders to participate in the discussion. Not to get them to endorse our arguments, but to let them objectively analyze today's debate. This would broaden our influence and prevent us from getting bogged down in a liberal echo chamber."

Sean frowned, wanting to say something, but his intuition told him that this plan seemed rather grandiose and unrealistic.

Kelly nodded in approval, saying, "A very professional solution. But I have a question: Who will do the content editing? Who will be responsible for the daily operation of the social media accounts? We are currently severely understaffed."

"Sarah said she could provide remote support," Matthew said, "but she suggested we recruit some people locally in California as well. After all, there's a time difference between the East and West coasts, and real-time response would be a step slower."

So Sean thought about it and decided to stick to the plan he had just used.

"Matthew, call Sarah and the others and tell her to start the first phase. Cut out the three most important clips and release them tonight. Then we'll recruit social media operators in Los Angeles—post a job ad, requiring experience in political communications or trending topics, and giving preference to young people who understand internet slang."

"What about the budget?" Vincent asked.

“It’ll come from the campaign funds,” Sean said. “I have some money from Mr. Ma’s private donations, plus some small fundraising, enough for us to recruit a group of people.”

That was his secret stash of money!

It's alright. How can one achieve great things if one is reluctant to part with such a small amount of money!

"Speaking of Musk—" Rachel held up her phone, "he just tweeted something."

All eyes turned to them.

Rachel read aloud: "I watched the debate between @Sean Penn and @Charlie Kirk. I must say, Charlie's point about faith providing social cohesion makes sense, but Sean's arguments about the separation of church and state and individual responsibility are more thought-provoking. On this issue, perhaps we need to move beyond an either-or mindset."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

"Is he... playing both sides?" Matthew said uncertainly.

Sean is more athletic, while Charlie is more business-oriented?

“No,” Kelly shook his head, “he was being cautious in expressing his support, and his last sentence transcended black-and-white thinking,” actually echoing Sean’s theme of finding common ground earlier that day.

Vincent frowned: "But he hasn't clearly taken sides; he's worried that fully supporting Sean would anger his conservative supporters."

“Mr. Carter, Lauma is a businessman after all,” Sean said calmly. “He’s done quite well to get this far. At least he didn’t stay silent. Just think, that tweet alone would generate a huge amount of traffic.”

Although getting him to stay silent is inherently difficult! He's practically living on social media.

Meanwhile, Matthew refreshed the page: "Musk's tweet has already garnered 20,000 likes and 7,000 retweets in just three minutes. The comments section—well, it's a mixed bag."

"The variety doesn't matter!" Sean declared emphatically. "The important thing is that the hype is already there, and we need to seize this opportunity!"

“Kelly,” he continued, “we’ll have a meeting tomorrow to plan the campaign schedule in detail. The California primary is still a while away, but we need to start building our nationwide organizational structure.”

“Kid, we’re already preparing,” Kelly said with a smile. “I’ve contacted a few old friends in key swing states. They may not necessarily support you, but they’re willing to offer some local campaign experience. In addition, we need a policy team. You can’t win an election with just sentiment and debate; you need concrete policy proposals.”

"Let's start with the issues that are easiest to reach a consensus on." Sean presented the results of his learning over the past month: "Economic opportunities, healthcare costs, and education. These are the issues that ordinary people care about most."

"And then there's technology regulation," Rachel added. "That's your unique strength. Your relationship with Silicon Valley, and your thinking about the relationship between technology and society, can be a selling point that differentiates you from traditional politicians."

The discussion continued late into the night. They developed a work plan for the coming week: recruiting a social media team,

Drafting an initial policy framework, contacting potential local supporters, and planning the first small-scale fundraising event. Sean once again assigned tasks: "Everyone, here are the arrangements!"

"Matthew, you continue to oversee online communications and data analysis. Mr. Carter, you'll handle legal and financial compliance. Rachel, you'll manage media relations and content planning. Kelly, you'll oversee the overall picture and political strategy, and also keep an eye on small-amount crowdfunding websites!"

After saying it all in one breath, the feeling of commanding the world was really great!

And everyone began to fight with serious expressions, as if they were facing Alexander the Great.

It wasn't until 1 a.m. that everyone gradually dispersed to rest.

Sean was the last to leave the living room. Before going upstairs, he glanced at the whiteboard on the wall. In the center was written a line: "Not about changing beliefs, but about starting a dialogue."

"I hope so," Sean said, scratching his head awkwardly.

He doesn't mind believing in a few gods.

The premise is that God can really protect him!

>