I think the divisions between the parties are clear — but are these divisions just among the party elite, the candidates who are the faces of party rhetoric? Or have these divisions trickled down into the common American household?

The Republicans are the party of Abraham Lincoln — the party that is praised for representing economic freedoms and national security recently. The Democrats boast social liberalism and diplomacy. And all of these are proud traditions to remember, so does it matter what side we are on?

The short answer: yes.

While Republicans may be the party of Abraham Lincoln, they now have a presumptive presidential nominee who represents bigotry — the very attitude Lincoln sought to abolish. And we don't blame the party for getting stuck with this dangerous presidential nominee, but we do blame each individual legislator who has embraced him.

I have despised Speaker Paul Ryan since hearing his speech in 2013 where he said, "Children with free or reduced lunches have full stomachs and empty souls," (another reason why it matters which side you choose), but I have not felt any more disappointed that he represents a district in which my parents live until he, representing the ideal conservative Republican who is a good family man, endorsed Trump.

But even absent of Trump — it matters.

One side of the aisle wishes to see all Americans with access to affordable health care and affordable prescription drugs; the other side pockets money from health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and continues to stand idly by while the prices of American medicines sky-rocket out of control.

One side of the aisle wishes to see an America in which our interior is secure because it is nearly impossible to operate a gun that is not registered to the individual who bought it (through thumb-print technology), wants universal background checks for gun owners so that people who have been found guilty of domestic violence cannot buy guns, and wants to thwart terrorism by developing positive relationships with people of different cultures. The other side of the aisle fights legislation that aids this process. While it may be a stretch to say that Republicans want innocent Americans to be killed due to irresponsible legislation, their actions make it seem as such.

One side of the aisle wants to help all Americans be educated, from preschool through college and beyond, and to ensure that the education is high quality and affordable. They want Americans to be able to compete with Europeans in their education. The other side of the aisle would just as well make all schools private so that education is once again, reserved for the elite only.

One side of the aisle wishes to combat real problems like campus sexual assault through providing support for victims, ensuring a fair process for criminal proceedings and increasing sexual violence education programs, including bystander intervention. The other side likes to ask women how much they've had to drink and if they physically fought their attacker.

One side of the aisle would like to see the world remain a habitable place for thousands of years to come and wants to take real steps to encourage sustainable energy, like tax credits for those operating energy-efficient cars or living in energy-efficient homes. The other side accepts large donations to their PACs from oil companies and work to advance the interests of those large corporations.

One side wishes to end the age of mass incarceration by reducing or eliminating minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders, while the other will happily take away all the fathers in a community for petty charges.

I know it's unfair to make the party equal to its leaders, because both parties are full of very diverse ideas — but the Republican party platform has lots of fancy text that boils down to a desire to taking away your rights. And they don't mention anything like campaign finance reform. They do note that they would like to protect the electoral college (because Republicans only win due to electoral college shuffling, not because they win the popular vote).

If you vote Republican because you are fiscally conservative but socially liberal, you are missing how the two connect. Local taxes are the only taxes that are mostly fair across a diversity of incomes: you pay based on what you own. But at the state and federal level, where wealthy people receive huge tax breaks, it's not fair. And this affects civil rights because — a child growing up in an inner city will be subject to a lower tax dollar (locally) per student than a suburban kid, because inner city housing is cheaper and therefore fewer taxes are paid. This means the inner city school gets less money per student, and unless the state and federal tax dollars can be reallocated to create more equity, there is a cycle of income inequality that cannot be broken. (Also, less money toward a police officer's salary per person; less money toward garbage pickup per person, etc.) But, some wealthy people are able to claim so much in tax breaks that they pay the same dollar amount in taxes as someone making 1/10th of what they do. Allowing huge tax breaks for the 1 percent is what drives many of the social problems we face, so I think you should be in a moral dilemma if you define yourself as "socially liberal but fiscally conservative."

Democrats are the party that represent the defense of marriage equality, defense of female bodily autonomy, protection of those who aren't cis-gender or heterosexual, defense of the middle class, protection of the principle of one man = one vote, active pursuit of defending every human life by providing everyone with health care, positive outcomes of diplomacy and international cooperation, fair treatment of our veterans, and so many more ideals that are American values.

The Republicans won't move our country forward and they won't inspire unity. They make the divisions between us more clear and more thick — they want it to be blatantly obvious how much you make per hour, what generation immigrant you are, what race or ethnicity you come from, what gender or sexuality you identify with. They want to pit us against each other.

So yes, you have to choose a side.