Brian Endless, PhD

Founder of The Come Together Project

My name is Brian Endless, and I am the founder of the Come Together Project. I am a political science professor at Loyola University Chicago, but please don’t hold that against me. While I teach mostly international affairs, I’ve been closely watching and studying the reality of American politics, society and culture as we have slid downhill for the past 40+ years. We used to be a country that valued community and that came together to solve problems and do great things. But now we are divided into warring camps, where we have so demonized the “other side” that we often refuse to even try to talk together or understand each other.

For years my students and friends have been pushing me to get out beyond the classroom and take the things I teach into the real world. Well this is it. I’m starting a movement, and if you join me, I think we can create real change and actually help America move forward.

Why now? For me, it’s because I’m sick of it. Sick of what American society, culture and politics has become. And I know for a fact that a lot of you, left, right, moderate, GOP and Democrat, political and nonpolitical are sick of it too.

We have been sold a society that is eating itself, and pretty much all of us have bought into it. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 was a turning point for me, as it was for many people. But in my case, it didn’t lead me to hate the other side. Rather it started me down a new and different path.

This isn’t a left or right thing for me. I honestly think that both sides are full of good people who want the best for our society. But over the past 40 years we have all been sold a bill of goods. And over time we’ve bought into this new culture so much that all we want to do now is fight each other.

I came to this point because I am sick of good people literally hating each other because of the labels that have been thrust upon them. I hate the idea that families can’t sit down at the dinner table and talk about what’s happening in our country without a fight breaking out.

The left thinks that MAGAs are “deplorables,” not worth redeeming and not worth their time. I have friends on the left who cut family members and friends out of their lives because of their support for MAGA. They don’t understand how people can act that way and assume they are insane and evil.

And the right is equally bad, hating the educated elites on the left for always judging them, looking down on them, and for their “woke” attitudes that are ruining our society. They disown their leftie kids and can’t understand how people can live in woke big cities with too much government and too much crime. And they hate liberals for always wanting to give things away to minorities, when rural and small town white Americans are also suffering.

In the classroom I teach one very basic lesson about politics: if you are not sure why something is happening, start by asking the question “Who Benefits?” Follow the money. If you can figure out who is profiting from something, you are probably on the road to finding out why a problem really exists.

And when I look at our Culture Wars, at our constant battles, and at our inability to work together on problems, I see one overarching answer: our society, culture and politics are controlled by and primarily benefit a tiny group of ultra wealthy elites. They have set up a system that benefits them. They have used their wealth to control the government, and then used that government to give themselves more wealth. They have purposefully twisted the government so that it doesn’t work well for the rest of us, to the point that most of us (rightly) don’t trust our government anymore. Ironically, all sides tend to agree that the rich and powerful are benefiting when the rest of us aren’t, but we fight so much that we can’t act on this belief.

So what’s the answer? We need to stop playing their game. We - the vast majority of Americans - need to take back our society and culture. And then we need to take back our economy and politics.

We can do it, BUT we need to COME TOGETHER. We need to remember that America is strongest when we form a community that works together. We win wars. We create great economies. We go to the moon. And we can do much better. We can create new jobs and careers for those who have been left behind. We can all have access to clean water and healthy food. We can get our kids good educations, so they can do better than their parents, whether college or trade school. BUT we can’t do it, if we are at each other’s throats.

We don’t have to allow that small group of ultra wealthy elites - a tiny number with insane wealth in the 100s of millions and billions - to keep control. We still live in a democracy and we can take things back. But not if we let them keep us apart.

We need to form a new American community. We need to remember that in our society and culture, working together is better than “everyone for themselves” individualism. And we need to understand that for each individual to be free, we ALL need to support each other to achieve our freedom.

The alternative? We can let them keep us apart. We can keep fighting. We can keep moving in the wrong direction. And that small group will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

I founded the Come Together Project to do just that. I want to get out there and listen to what Americans are saying. I want to ask what people WANT and NEED, not what they hate. I want to encourage us to put aside the Culture Wars and try to do the things that will IMPROVE our lives, not just focus on what we hate about those who are different from us. I want to encourage people on the right, center and left to open our minds and see our neighbors, whether we are rural, small town, urban, or anywhere in the country. We’re all humans. We all want to make life better for ourselves and our families. And we’re all Americans.

What we’re missing is that the best way to help ourselves is not to fight, but rather to COME TOGETHER.

It’s not going to be easy. “They” aren’t going to like it, and they won’t give up their influence over our society, culture and politics without a fight.

But I was taught as a kid that we can do GREAT things when we all Come Together and focus ourselves. My first real memory is of Americans landing on the moon, one of our greatest societal and cultural achievements. And we did it together.

Taking back our society can be our moon shot and I hope you’ll join me. We can do it if we Come Together.