I'm not a fan of discussing my political views online, but since we'll be having a very...interesting...few years, I feel the need to say this:
I didn't like, or vote for, either major candidate. Personally, I think the two-party system is a broken mess. I hated the brutality and hatred and ugliness on both sides of the campaign, by both the candidates and their supporters. So when I watched Trump win, I didn't know what to expect. Then I saw his victory speech, and I was proud of his humbleness and graciousness to Hillary. I said to myself, "You know what, the man deserves a chance to prove he can actually lead this country." And for a while, I was optimistic—a view I do not undertake lightly.
But as the weeks have rolled on, I find myself appalled at the lack of control and poor self-esteem of DJ Trump. Low self-esteem explains almost everything he's done: validation, myopic views, self-congratulations ("Best jobs creator God ever made"), refusal to accept anything he does is wrong, etc, etc, etc, etc to the infinite. At the same time, I'm similarly appalled by the media, and people, on both sides for similar behavior.
We need to accept that he is the president now. You don't have to like it, you can protest it, you can hold him and the government accountable, you can DO something about it, but we all have to realize that, for now, he is our president. So we need to find ways we can make this work, even if you protest at the same time. We have to accept the reality and act with dignity and respect. And maybe he will too now that he is the head of our country.
But I know that will be difficult. What concerns me most are the extreme views both sides carry, a hatred for one another. The vitriol many liberals say Trump and his supporters spit out I've also seen coming fast and hard from the people who decry him; such hatred and unwillingness to try to see anything positive in the man and his followers. And similarly, many conservatives jeering at the left as idiots who can't accept reality and can't do anything without crying or going into their safe spaces and only listen to liberal propaganda, when they themselves listen to their own propaganda.
We have fractured ourselves, almost in the same way the Civil War tore our country apart. In part because of the inability to see the other side as human, villainizing the members of the "opposing" party—calling them idiotic, gullible, evil, racist, anti-religion, the list goes on. This is why this election unfolded the way it did, in my opinion, because we see those who don't think like us as the enemy. We should be ONE country, ONE people, and neither side has done well at reaching out to the other to WORK TOGETHER.
And until we do, the campaigns and our political landscape will only become uglier and more polarized. Both sides will be pushed to more and more radicalized views. There is not much separating religious extremists from Democrat and Republican extremists—the level of violence being the biggest difference, for the time being. You may think your side is right, the other is wrong, but in labeling your "enemies" as too far gone or unwilling to compromise, all you do is put the other side in a similar mindset.
A good step to mend the gap between us is to sit with someone of a differing view and talk to them. DISCUSS (not ARGUE) your beliefs, get to understand why that person believes what they do. Don't decry them as close-minded as you bludgeon them with your rhetoric, only to shut out their ideology without considering there might be some good points to their views. Actually listen, be open-minded to the idea you might not have all the answers! Once you actually decide to hear what the other person has to say without dismissing every word as ignorant and foolish, and consider their point of view, they might very well might do the same for you! They might decide conservatives or liberals aren't so bad after all. They might hear something you have to say and think, "You know what, I hadn't considered that before, maybe there's something to what these people believe." And who knows, maybe you'll do the same.
We need to focus more on our similarities. We need to learn to work together. If we don't (and don't believe that we CAN'T), we will rot and weaken the one thing we can all agree we care about: our country.
So, for the good of your side, the other side, the indifferent, the outsiders, the extremists, the moderates, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Independents, the people you love, the people you hate, all the people of these United States of America, try, just TRY to learn to work together. Only then can we TRULY become great again.
