So, I am a political science student. I study the topic of national and international politics on a near daily basis. I participate in clubs relating to politics. In my free time, I look at topics relating to political science. My best friends at college are mostly fellow political science majors and minors, with a good portion of them being Global and International Studies majors. And I really like talking about the political world with these friends, because they can either give me a new perspective on a topic I had either no opinion or an uninformed opinion about (usually concerning International Relations), or to have a good laugh at the state of my country.

I’m about to say something that this website, under normal circumstances, probably wouldn’t allow. And there is no guarantee that the following statement makes it into the article, so if it doesn’t, please remove this disclaimer.

But f*ck politics.

Or, at least, the current state of politics. Three reasons stick out in my mind as to why I chose to focus on international relations over US National politics for my major. Those would be Model UN, the people who I’ve worked in for Model UN, and the fact that talking politics and sharing ideas with the people at my college alone is equivalent to having a shock collar strapped around your neck, the button activating it being held by every person you are currently talking to, after the college said that you should have no fear of being shocked.

I am a staunch Democrat. Just felt like that needed to be stated before I go on. However, I think that the Republicans at my school have, in general, been the nicer, friendlier, and overall better people to be around than the Democrats. And in my opinion, it has nothing to do with the fact that they are Republicans. That is probably the main point of this article today, that a person’s political alignment and their character have nothing to do with each other. But there are people out there who don’t want to make that distinction, because seeing and painting the opposite side of the political spectrum as pure evil makes it easier for people to band against and malign otherwise good people. If, for example, people saw Jeb Bush do all the charitable work he has done over the years, it would be hard to paint him as an uncaring, evil Republican politician that should never hold public office. But fear-mongering propaganda is the only way that politics can be played nowadays, apparently. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both the spawn of Satan, and either of them in office would spell doom for the USA.

Now, normally I wouldn’t care. I know enough to where I can ignore all that propaganda and decide for myself who should be president (in this case, Clinton). However, other people can’t separate political alignment from character, and that is when I have a problem with politics. When I see people labeling everyone who opposes their political ideology as racists, when I see people afraid to talk about their belief because others may challenge their character, not their beliefs, but their character for it, when I see good, honest people who engage in public services and volunteer work leave my college because they couldn’t take the culture anymore, that is when I become irked at the current state of politics. Look, I said I am Democrat, but I am willing to compromise on issues such as gun control and abortion rights because of several factors in my mind, not one of them being that I am ignoring the slaughtering of US citizens that seems to happen daily, or that I am a misogynist who does not care about women. And I would gladly have an intelligent conversation with someone on these issues if I was sure that that type of labeling wouldn’t happen, but the fact of the matter is that I’m sure that it will happen.

I understand that there are people out there who are similar to me, but are in sort of an opposite situation, where they are believe that they cannot say their liberal stances in a conservative environment. So I am going to keep these next few statements as nonpartisan as I can. Character and political ideology are two distinct parts of a person. Bad people from both sides of a political spectrum exist, just as good people on both sides exist. No one is a (insert attack on character here) just because they believe (insert stance on a political topic here). Neither presidential candidate is Satan. When you are to talk to someone on why they support a candidate, do so without attacking their character. You are not smart purely because of your political alignment. And STOP. TAKING. POLITICS. SO. SERIOUSLY. Damn. Now, if you excuse me, I am going to study Senegal’s stance on microfinancing and how it may help the West African region for a few months.