Danny Province

My background:

Teaching Debate

I have been a debate coach for the last 10 years. A good coach can teach public speaking, politics, and current events, along with the basics of economics, philosophy, and history. The temptation as a debate coach is just to teach argumentative tricks and scripts to read instead of expertise in the topics the kids speak about. I got a reputation for teaching kids the real subject matter, and they went on to great competitive success at tournaments as well as entering the best universities around the world. I couldn't be more proud of them.

Starting a Small Business

In 2021, while China was still under the zero-covid lockdown, I partnered with Harbinger to open a new debate school in Beijing. It was a great success and now serves a few hundred students a year. We went from $0 revenue to over $1 million annual revenue and from 3 employees to almost 30 now.

I really enjoyed navigating the tricky business climate in China at the time. Not only was the zero-covid policy happening and the economy slowing down, but the government also issued the "double-negative" policy limiting what schools like mine could teach. Despite this stronger government intervention and weakening economy, we were profitable every semester and a runaway success. I know that its entirely possible to create economic growth and have a more muscular government at the same time, and fixing our government's economic policies is actually what will create an environment where opportunities are widespread again.

Struggling after the Great Recession

I was born in Warrensburg and in college at UCM from 2006 - 2010, and I was working at KMOS-TV during that time. I was on duty when the admin started walking the hallways going from office to office laying people off, and what I remember is the fear everyone had that day. I was making $10/hour at the time, more than student employees typically were supposed to, so I thought I might be on the list. Luckily it was too little to be of their notice, but to me, it was a lot; I didn't know it yet but $10/hour was the highest pay I would earn for the next several years.

After graduating I couldn't find a job in TV, and bounced around between unemployment and temp jobs. I worked in a unionized brick factory. I mowed lawns on construction sites. I ended up something close to an overnight janitor at age 26, $8/hour and college degree in hand. Finally I got into graduate school in 2015 and went straight to China upon graduation where my career took off.

I definitely would not have made it through without the support of my Dad when I had nothing else going for me. I know what its like to throw ice in the toilet, or go without heat on a snowy winter night, or skip eating a couple days at the end of the month. I want to make the necessities for life like housing, healthcare, and food more affordable so its a little easier for people living that struggle. When that struggle gets easier, more people will be able to rise above it.

Conversion to the Democrats

When I was a teenager, I was watching Fox News and considered myself conservative. Like most men growing up in the Midwest it just seemed natural, and the other men in my area were all Republicans too. I marched in a parade for them. Much to my shame, I remember arguing passionately in favor of the Iraq War in high school debate club, fully aware of what a trump card weapons of mass destruction was. I attended a McCain rally in '08, and at that point I was already souring because it had long become clear they had lied about WMDs and many other things. At that point I was paying close enough attention to realize the great recession was being caused by the conservative obsession with deregulation and moral hazard.

It was indeed a leopards ate my 18-year-old face moment. The republicans had sent my generation to die in the desert for oil, and then sacrificed a decade of our economic lives on an altar to neoliberalism. All those years I was struggling, I was painfully aware republicans were working to slow the economic recovery by shrinking stimulus and sequestration. I began arguing against them to anyone that would listen, and over time I got better at it. My best friends in college had also been republicans and later became democrats. My father and I stopped watching Fox News in the morning and switched to Morning Joe on MSNBC. I've had a lot of success at shifting my friends and family to the left. What works is not compromise and capitulation; its standing whole-heartedly for your values, and being there when their party lies to them or betrays them, so they can see there's still something to believe in.