Donald J. Trump was selected to be the next president of the United States last Tuesday. Come December, he will be formally elected. About a month later, he will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Mass hysteria has broken out online, in particular with many of my fellow Millennials, as well as all of those who casually associate themselves with the American left. Given this reaction, I found myself waking up every morning dreading new of economic catastrophe on Wall Street, mass deportations in the southwest, and forced labor camps for dissenters being set up in the Mojave Desert. Thankfully, none of these scenarios have come to fruition.

These are precarious times. Many of us are perplexed by Trump’s victory and what that means for the future. This root of this perplexity originates from the fact that Trump was never actually supposed to win the election. Yet, we were all wrong. After much introspection and careful deliberation, I asked myself the following question: What does America need right now?

Do we need another election? Should we pack up in mass and immigrate to Canada? Will Jon Stewart cash in on the temporary chaos and join the ranks of the chattering late night television class once more? In my opinion, we do not need any of that. What this country needs right now is some good, old-fashioned love. I am not referring to romanticized love. I am not calling for some hippie-everyone-let's-hold hands and pass the doobie around kumbaya styled love either. What I am referring to is love for our country, love for each other, and love even for Donald Trump.

Hear me out. The premise of this love develops from respect and tolerance. It is what many of us were taught in school or in a church. I am acutely aware that Donald Trump has embraced what I, as well as many others, view as the antithesis of respect and tolerance. However, to quote the greatest Michelle Obama line ever: (besides the one where she calls Hillary Clinton “Hildebeast” during the 2008 Democratic Primary) “When they go low, we go high.” It is now time to heed Obama’s call and move forward through these uncertain times.

Donald Trump has repeatedly taken the low road over the course of his campaign. I could list many ways in which he has done so, but I am not about to write a four-volume encyclopedia set. His campaign was an embarrassing international spectacle and it took down with it one of the most qualified and devoted public servants in American history. Why should we stoop to his level? Vindication would be an obvious motivator, but are we not better than that?

The America that I envision is similar to the one that Hillary Clinton envisioned; a civil society that is inclusive and forward-thinking. An essential part of that societal fabric is respect and tolerance. Many of us have seen the vitriol spewed by Trump, as well as many of his most enthusiastic supporters, played repeatedly online. Everyone reading this has probably witnessed at least some form of degrading or discriminating behavior, whether it be a video of a racist Trump supporter or a news story about anti-semitic graffiti being sprayed on buildings, that happened as a result of the campaign. It is disheartening and infuriating to see such behavior in the year 2016, but it happened nonetheless.

Do we really want this to continue? It will, to some degree. Racism, xenophobia, sexism, and all other forms of distasteful discrimination will not vanish overnight. An emboldened Donald Trump will not help with this either. However, all of us anti-Trumpers out there can do one thing; take the higher road.

Perhaps if the forty-nine percent of voters who rejected Trump forgave him for his misgivings, he would become a better man from it. Maybe if all of us on the ambiguous left showed displays of tolerance and respect towards those on the Trumpist right, we can come closer to bridging the very real and apparent divide between citizens in this country. Progressives preach tolerance and respect. The next four years will be a very real test of that claim.

I believe that Trump’s campaign was reactionary. Every time he said something outlandish, millions of people would react with outrage and insensible ridicule. That reaction, in turn, fueled the behavior and general strategy of his campaign, that is; go lower and marginalize even more people. Let’s give him a chance in the White House and forgive him for his deplorable behavior on the campaign trail. If Trump sees the nation unifying and overcoming the bitterness of the campaign, he will meet us halfway and govern in a manner considerate of all Americans, not just the forty-nine percent of voters who supported him.

This is not to say we should forget all of the nasty things Trump said while campaigning. There is simply no excuse for that. Hopefully, Trump turns out to be very much like any other politician where he simply says outrageous things to get elected and that sort of rhetoric becomes a relic of the past. If he does not, then we will hold him accountable. There is only so much damage that Trump could possibly do while in office. We all like to say how Rome was not built in a day. Well, Rome did not fall in a day either, or in four years for that matter. I cannot foresee such a fate for the United States either. Nonetheless, it is our civic duty to hold Trump, just as any other elected official who wields power, accountable for his actions while in office.

The 2016 hangover will last for a long time. The devastating and painful defeat of Hillary Clinton will loom over the eastern seaboard like smog looms over Manhattan on a hot August afternoon. But we will persevere, we will move on from this. The fate of the next four years does not depend on the actions of our government alone. It depends on all of us and how we act in order to advance our society. Let’s take the high road by understanding and appreciating difference and diversity, including the right wing perspective. Let’s find common ground with our fellow countrymen who have essentially become foreigners to us. Above all, let’s love each other and love our great, although occasionally dysfunctional, American family. Then we can get back to working towards a perfect union everyone seems to always be talking about.