Well, it’s been a week since the election, in which Donald Trump surprised just about everyone, including himself, by pulling through and winning the Electoral College and securing his place as the 45th President of the United States. In the time since, America has all but lost her shit.

Now I want to stop right here and say, before I go on, that I myself am not a fan of Donald Trump. He has made some absolutely horrendous comments and claims leading up to the election. That being said, *takes deep breath* Donald Trump is our new President. Our Democratic system, whether you like it or not, worked. So, unless the Electoral College pulls a Steve Harvey and calls out someone else's name next month, we have President Trump until at least 2020.

Unfortunately, Trump’s election has caused a slough of hatred and violence to emerge across the country, from both Democrats and Republicans. Far right hate groups such as the KKK have spoken out and acted out against minorities, increasing the number of hate crimes in the country by an unacceptable amount, while Leftists have been protesting, attacking Trump supporters, and rioting in cities across the country. Which is kind of like breaking your toys so the other kids can’t play with them.

Many Democrats are looking for blood, and most are looking within the party for that blood. Unfortunately, many aren’t. The amount of backlash towards third party voters at the end of this election is staggering and disgusting, and it makes me sick as a third party voter. Hey Democrats, third party voters didn’t lose the election for you, your own party did. Three major flaws in the Democratic Party and their actions during this election all came together to generate one big failure.

The first flaw was pushing through the less popular of their two Primary Candidates. Bernie would have had much stronger potential in gaining support within his own party, and the nomination of Hillary Clinton in spite of Sanders’ popularity cost the Democrats many voters. The next would be failure to identify the Rust Belt (Midwestern States) as the battleground for this election. Trump accurately identified these states early on and hit hard and devoted much of his energy to these states. The third would be underestimating the overall popularity of Trump. Many people, myself included, thought Clinton had this election in the bag until a few weeks ago. But with that mentality, her campaign became complacent and overly secure. Because let’s be honest here, none of us really thought Donald Trump would win. I mean, the media had been telling us for weeks that Hillary would win by a landslide right?

Maybe that’s part of the problem? The media has been underrepresenting a majority of Americans and reported statistics that obviously didn’t truly reflect how America would vote. I think we will see a huge change in political reporting by the time the next election rolls around.

One of the worst lies that the media has fed us over the years is that Democrats and Republicans are extremely different. Different enough, in fact, to justify hatred for one another. So I will say this now; if you have used language or actions of hatred towards a political view that differs from yours, you are part of the problem. If you have accepted actions or words of hate during this election, you are part of the problem. If you truly believe that the majority of Democrats and the majority of Republicans are truly and fundamentally different, you are part of the problem. You drank the kool aid.

The truth is, Republicans and Democrats aren’t that different. Sure, they have different ideas about social policies, and economic practices, but overall everyone has the same goal- to move our country to a better, brighter future.

If I were asked to use one word to describe America, which I haven’t, I would say hope. Hope is the defining characteristic of all Americans, from immigrants to people whose families have been here for generations. Hope was what brought the Mayflower across the Atlantic (I won’t comment on the aftermath). We have to come together as one people united in the cause of moving our country forward. HAVE HOPE!

Hey, if Brittney Spears can make it through 2007, we can make it through this!