Over the course of this presidential election, we have seen an overwhelming amount of extremes. Extremist candidates, extremist supporters, extremist policies, and most detrimental of all, our extreme medias.

But where is there representation of the moderates? It seems there aren't too many out there if we look to the media, but in reality, most people, regardless of their political party, would find themselves to be relatively moderate and agree with some stances of the side they do not identify with (whether they like to admit it or not). And that is more than okay; in fact, it’s pretty great. It means we are well-balanced and able to understand others. We are not truly informed if we blindly follow someone based off of their claimed party.

The problem is that we unfairly categorize people by their political party and make snap judgements because of the extreme reputations being given to each one by the media. If you call yourself a Republican, you are pinned as a Trump-loving, ignorant racist. This is not true. If you are liberal you’re considered naïve, impractical, or lazy. This is also not the case.

We often assume that supporting a political figure or a party itself means that we must agree with everything that they have done or they have represented, or that we line up politically with all of their policies. But it’s okay to have a balance to our belief system and dip our toes in both waters at some point. In fact, we should encourage more balance in our politics.

It’s okay to be a Republican who supports strict gun laws. It’s okay to be a Democrat who is pro-life. It’s okay to support a candidate who is not in your political party. We should all focus less on political parties and more on the issues and what is important to us as an individual, and more importantly, our country.

We will never erase political parties, and we shouldn’t want to. What we need is to remember that before we are Republicans or Democrats, or liberals or conservatives, we are all Americans. And it’s okay to support the opposite party on an issue you really believe in.

Part of the wonderful thing about adopting a mentality of balance is that we will not always agree with everything a political leader does or says, but we don’t have to. So let’s celebrate the moderates. Let’s encourage balance in politics. Let’s stop judging people off of their political party, who they will vote for, who they refuse to support, or what they classify themselves as. Because all things in life require balance, and our political opinions should be no different.