I was seven years old—barely in first grade—when I first learned about the election. The year was 2016, the temperature cool. A slight breeze was in the air, the sun’s rays painting the sky in warm pinks and oranges.
I was inside, staring at my TV screen, watching the election unfold before me. At the time, it wasn’t really important to me because it didn’t really affect me. The capital was across the country. The whole election seemed to live in a world far away from mine; it was a fuzzy idea too far in the future for an elementary school kid like me to really care about.
I didn’t see the storm brewing, the maelstrom of heat and rage that was about to sweep across the US.
And then it began.
The fighting. The division. The mudslinging and vile words thrown on both sides.
You either were with someone or you weren’t. What you believed, who you and your parents agreed with, defined who you talked to, who was accepted and who was not.
And when the president was finally chosen? It got worse.
And worse.
And worse.
Political parties have always been a bit of a polarizing issue. But in the 2016 election, I saw the problem exacerbated. People were fighting everywhere. The things that mattered were left behind in the dust because people were unwilling to reach across the divide.
Three years later, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, a time characterized by isolation, loneliness, and anxiety. Still, people fought, delaying the passing of the CARES Act and stimulus packages that Americans so desperately needed. People just weren’t willing to put aside their differences to get things done.
As a result, the government shut down for 35 days. Yes, that pushed a little bit of compromise, but just enough for the US to survive. Nothing lasting was accomplished; nothing really changed even when hundreds of thousands of people went unpaid for over a month.
One more year passed and the next election came around. I was 11 years old then and terrified because it all happened again. The next president was chosen and the divide between the two main political parties didn’t change. Instead, it grew bigger. The fighting turned into riots, the most famous one being the January 6th insurrection, where thousands of rioters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to stop the official counting of the electoral votes that would determine the next president. A storm of rage had swept back over parts of the country and we were right back where we started. The US stayed stuck in the same loop, kept up the same destructive pattern.
It’s been eight years since I first learned about elections. I’m 15 now. And I am still terrified. I don’t have a say in the election; I can’t vote myself. Even with all of the options available for me to participate politically, I still feel like a bystander, watching the chaos and the destruction of friendship, of community, from the sidelines.
Now, the shared community I used to have feels stilted. In order to avoid any fights or arguments, I feel pressured to act as if the election isn’t happening, sidestepping the topic entirely. I have my own beliefs, but who can I tell them to? I am one person in a sea of animosity; I am one voice drowned out by the shouting and contempt and hostility that is American politics today.
Today marks Election Day, the day when we pick a new president. As ballots are counted, as votes are tallied and compiled, I hope this year is different.
In so many ways, it has stayed the same. The name-calling. The political division. The fear of what will come next.
But in some ways, it is different. There are calls for peace. There are calls for acceptance, no matter what you believe, no matter if you agree with the other person or not.
This year, what I ask for is a change in our view of politics. I ask for an end to this unnecessary division and an end to the resentment that plagues us all. What I ask for is an open conversation about politics. I ask for reaching across the divide to solve problems that matter to everyone and to stop letting politics get in the way.
I’m not saying that we can’t disagree. We can, and probably will, many more times in the future. All I am asking for is that at the end of the day, we shake each others’ hands. All I am asking for is that once everything is said and done, we give each other a smile.
Because what unites us is so much stronger than what divides us. Because through it all, we are all part of one nation together.
We cannot let politics divide us. We cannot let animosity be our everyday constant. Joining together, accepting one another, is what truly matters.
