Name: Neil Spencer
Year: Senior
Hometown: Cocoa Beach, FL
Majors: Political Science, International Affairs
Focus: History
Relationship Status: Single
Courtesy: Neil Spencer
Her Campus (HC): Hey, Neil! Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Neil Spencer (NS): Well I’m big into politics. I’m also a huge baseball fan and cheer on the Marlins every year for better or for worse. I think my calling guard is that people always recognize me by my hat and flannel jacket that I always have on. My friends even say, “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without a hat.” But other than that I’m President of Noles Want Bernie and I’m involved with the FSU Lions Club doing community service. I also do some stuff with the Democratic Party, but I want to expand my horizons after the campaign is over. I’ve been pretty consumed with the campaign for now so I haven’t been able to do much else.
HC: That’s definitely understandable. So you definitely seem to enjoy politics. What is it that sparked your love for it?
NS: I got really interested in it senior year of high school by my AP US History teacher. I was always kind of interested in presidents and learning about what they did and who they were, even before I took that class. In APUSH we talked a lot about policy and looking at the bigger picture, and it was really him that did it for me. Then I had a friend who was very negative, and his whole thing was that politics was too corrupt and you couldn’t fix it. The only reason we can’t fix it, though, is because of people like him who say things like that and aren’t willing to put in the effort, and that’s when I really thought about it being something I wanted to do. I had thought about politics as a career avenue before, and even looked into broadcast journalism, but it was then that it just kind of clicked in my head like, ‘you know what, I could do that.’
HC: How about Bernie Sanders? What ignited your support?
NS: I’m a denizen of the internet, and on Reddit there’s a thread called “Our Politics,” and there was always something about Senator Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. This was back about a year ago and I just kept seeing more and more of him so I kept him on my radar, but at the time I really liked Warren. Well, a week before he announced his candidacy I decided to look into him, see what people were talking about, and watched a few of his interviews. What he was saying made a lot of sense to me, and from there on it was just kind of a growing little thing. I watched him announcement speech and got kind of excited, and then just kept tabs on him over the summer, watching a bunch of his rallies. Then in early July I posted in an FSU page about wanted to start up a group to see if anyone was interested and from there I just kind of took charge and grew into the supporter that I am today.
HC: And then Noles Want Bernie began. That’s really interesting. So what is it exactly that you enjoy about politics?
NS: I’m going to be fair, I don’t like politics. It’s a very divisive thing. People hear what they want to hear, just like human nature, and I think politics in itself isn’t something fun to get into. Maybe advocating for a policy issues, but I don’t do politics because I think it is fun. I do it because I think there are things that need to be done. I welcome a challenge, and it’s not necessarily fun. It’s quite frustrating in all honesty. But I like to get people engaged. I like to make sure people understand what’s going on, get them informed. That’s why I was kind of interested in broadcast journalism. I wanted to speak truth to power and all that kind of stuff, because I always thought the media has an inherent bias since I was young. All these news stations spout the same bullsh*t with a different tongue, and I think politics is an avenue for speaking truth to power, and that’s why I gravitate towards Sanders because he does just that. So it’s not fun necessarily. It’s a great outlet I can use in order to help people though.
HC: I like that it keeps coming back to helping people and making a real change. Do you think Bernie has the power to really change the world? And how about you. Do you think you have the power to do the same?
NS: I will say for both of those questions it’s a no and no answer, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Bernie has always said that it’s not just him. No one politician can do anything. You can be a figure head, but it’s not just that one person. It wasn’t just MLK, or Abraham Lincoln, or Nelson Mandela. It’s always about the seeds that you plant and the grassroots that you make come up. In that sort of way I don’t think I have the individual power to do anything, and I don’t think Sanders has the individual power to do anything, but when I think people become more aware and involved and active, that’s when we as a collective body get actual change. In Bernie’s campaigning he says all the time that he cannot do this alone. It has got to come from millions of people that realize they’re in a sh*tty position. It’s not about the people on top. Change never comes from the top-down. If it did then nothing would ever change. So it’s never just one person, or two people. It’s got to be a group of people.
HC: You definitely seem very passionate about all of this. What else would you say you’re passionate about?
NS: As a broad thing I’m very much against what I see as bullying. As a kid almost everyone gets bullied. I myself was bullied, and it always kind of struck a chord with me. I hated people that used their friend groups or their popularity or their perceived power to push around people that didn’t seem as well off, and I think that’s what sort of drives me to be as big of an advocate for the little guys as I can be. I look at people that have mass amounts of wealth and I just think that their power and ability to throw their weight behind their punch is so much more than what any of us can do as an individual. I’ve never enjoyed looking at people abuse their real or perceived power, and that’s always struck a chord with me. I don’t know if its empathy so much as I understand when something is kind of screwed up in the world. It’s what drives me, because I can’t stand it. I can’t stand looking at that.
HC: Is there anything that you feel is important for people to know about you?
NS: I want people to understand that if you ever look at me I’m never going to be someone that will be perfect, or you think knows exactly what they’re doing. Everyone has their flaws, and they’re trying to get things accomplished, so I just try. Every day I go out, say I’m having a rough day, and I try to just make it through for other people so that way others can have a happier day. I think people should go through life and just try their best and make others happy. That’s what I strive for in my life.