One of the most common themes in politics today is to blame the opposing party for an issue. "The Democrats caused" or "The Republicans believed" are among politicians' and news outlets' favorite phrases to attack an opposing idea and cause division in our country. The problem with using these phrases is it attacks the people who may or may not agree with an idea, rather than analyzing the problem, the idea, and practical outcomes of the idea.

Odds are, more of us are more moderate than we believe.

When we register to vote, we declare our party. We dedicate ourselves to the group that most aligns with our beliefs. This devotion to a group instills loyalty to group ideals rather than encourage issue-by-issue analyses. For example, it would be extremely odd to see a Republican vouch for stricter gun safety laws and a Democrat vouch for charter schools. Their ideas on these individual issues may not always match the extreme left or right ideas as decided by the party.

If we take things issue by issue, we could get more done.

Instead of electing representatives who make promises to ideals of the party, why don't we elect representatives that have the same ideals as us? While the beliefs of individuals and a political party may be similar, in many cases they vary. Party beliefs are often more extreme than individual ideals. There is so much information out there about candidates—why not have them partake in a survey that briefly shows their stance on our most common issues? That way, people are able to pick representatives based on issues, not staged debates, unprofessional arguments, tweets, or biased news media outlets.

Too often, people spread hatred and misinformation on the Internet.

By now, we all know to not comment on a political post on Facebook. The comment section is disgusting, with people getting personally attacked for their opinions and beliefs, often with little facts or sources to support either side of the argument. While social media has greatly improved communication, users often abuse the privilege by bullying each other over their party association. As a society, we need to be able to say "Well, according to this statistic, I believe in this because" and someone needs to be able to comment "Well, according to this statistic, I believe in something else, but I can respect where you are coming from." Instead, we see things like "You Democrats think you own the place by spreading your Fake News" and "You Republicans want to bury the poor to boost your own egos."

We need to get away from labels and news outlets that aim to divide us and focus on forming evidence-based opinions that can be professionally discussed.

While I am a registered Democrat, I find myself often agreeing with a compromise of ideas from both parties, especially with major political issues like immigration laws, education, abortion, and gun laws. Rather than putting a divided title on ourselves and our candidates, we should focus on what our stance is for each issue we are concerned about and how that aligns with candidates' concerns. We should form our opinions based on our personal values AND evidence from different sources to support our claims for what is best for the common good.

We will still have different beliefs,

but our disagreements will be supported with evidence and will be respected on both sides. We will still have different beliefs, but we will be able to debate them with facts, not emotions. We will still have different beliefs, but we will base our differences on perspectives regarding issues, not labels and associations of parties.