Everyone’s anxious about the presidential election just around the corner., we think we can all finally acknowledge the elephant in the room (or donkey, whichever you prefer): that this election contains a great deal of anxiety.
For the conservatives, there is fear of what will happen with another Clinton president and for the liberals, an identical dread for a Trump presidency.
We’re not going to tell you who to vote for or who’s right; instead, we are going to implore you to think upon the unity of our nation –— and what can cure us of the pandemic fear that has the right and the left in its grip.
This election has brought out some of the worst mentalities in the United States. Before this election even began, we knew that there was xenophobia, racism and sexism present, along with the rest of the world. Did anyone anticipate that it was going to be this bad? Absolutely not.
In the year 2016, we realized that we, as a nation, are still not too far from the racial and sexual discrimination that was blatant 50 years ago.
We heard a man say that all African Americans “live in poverty” and should vote for him because they “don’t have much to lose.”
We have seen that same man claim that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States, even demanding that a wall be built to keep Mexicans who “steal jobs” and “bring crime, drugs and rapists” out of the country. He’s even been accused of sexually assaulting women, many of whom have come forward to show the country who he really is.
He claims you can “get away with it when you’re famous.” These claims are ridiculous enough on their own, and should be immediately disregarded as hogwash. However, when you consider that approximately half of the United States would vote for him, it shows where exactly we stand as a nation.
This country has survived economic collapse and civil war. We have faith that it will survive whichever ruinous president concerns you. What concerns us is that both sides in this election have committed grievous sins held by the other side’s ideology, and there does not seem to be a spirit of parley in the air. The Republicans have passed the point of no return with their nomination of Trump, and the fact that they have does not say much about their opinion on four more years of a Democrat hold office.
There is an intense mutual contempt and bitterness that separates the two factions from each other, and we are genuinely concerned with what will happen when one side is disappointed come November. We are not here to say that we should ignore our differences. Difference means distinction — distinction means identity.
What makes America great is not building a wall, as Donald Trump claims, but the high diversity of the people you see walking down the street. The American dream, as built by our founding fathers, was for people of all races and creeds to unify in order to search for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We think it is time we look up from our voluminous lists of grievances and see with surprise and relief that our fellow Americans are in fact human.
Most of us will probably not meet the president of the United States, but we will meet each other. We will have differences and disagreements and long memories and records of each other’s wicked sins, but we think we can love each other anyway.
We can take this chance right now, before the election comes crashing down on us and half the country rejoices while the other half roars with rage, to unconditionally value each other. To love people for being just like you — complicated but beautiful creatures that in the end, are all Americans.
We believe that a love not for opposing ideology but for individual people will heal this country and end the desperate back-and-forth struggle for control. Maybe for once, we don’t have to let fear tear us away from each other. Maybe for once, this great eagle can fly with both wings. That is where we put our hope: that perfect love will drive out all fear.
America may be on the verge of all-out chaos, but it’s not too late. We can still work together to make America even greater than it was before. We won’t even need a wall in order to do it.