“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

–Helen Keller

I like Senator Tim Scott (R, S.C.) … a lot … but this is not an endorsement of his candidacy for the U.S. presidency. We’re all adults and can make up our own minds. This is about what’s become of the process of running for high office.

Some brief backstory. Scott was raised by his single mom. His grandfather had picked cotton for a living. As the senator likes to say, his family went from the cotton fields to Congress in the span of three generations. He holds that optimistic notion out as something young people who look like him can cling to and hope for. That’s his feel-good story.

But he was a troubled youth–not interested in school, poorly motivated, no direction in his life. He credits John Moniz, a Chick-fil-A franchise owner, with taking an interest in Scott and teaching him concepts like hard work, self-respect, and upward mobility. More good backstory.

Here’s the bad news. As a conservative politician with broad appeal to people of all colors, Scott’s hat in the ring immediately became a target. Even the president who had the greatest opportunity since Abraham Lincoln to do something positive about race relations, but swung and missed–or perhaps took a “called strike” by doing nothing–weighed in.

Tim Scott’s message today is eerily similar to Barack Obama’s message of hope that kick-started his historical campaign for the 2008 presidential race. It worked for him, but heaven forbid that a conservative Black man hold up as virtuous hope, family values, a strong work ethic, and equal opportunity for all–especially if that man is campaigning for the highest office in our land and he’s not a member of your political party.

Obama said Scott’s the exception, and he can’t expect to run his message up the proverbial flag pole and think the disadvantaged will buy into it. Seriously? So, better to offer a message to our minority children that they’re victims of 250 years of systemic racism than to say, “Look at me. I, too, was disadvantaged, but I grabbed my bootstraps and pulled myself out of poverty.” I don’t know about you, but the latter sounds like the American dream to me.

My point is this: We’ve become a nation in which the politically powerful mislead, demagogue, and deride the opposition’s members. Not just for their political persuasions but for their personal stories, too. Notwithstanding what we must look like to the rest of the world, it’s a terrible commentary on the decency and decor terribly lacking in the halls of political power.

Our longest-running war remains the war on poverty, and we’re losing it. The government can’t just throw money at it and expect anything more than the little we’ve achieved since the 1960s. A different model is warranted. We need citizens and their elected representatives to reaffirm the importance of family, education, marriage, responsible procreation, and faith-based living.

If that’s the message of a Black candidate who learned things the hard way and ultimately succeeded, then he deserves our attention and respect, regardless of how we vote.