The other night, I stared in horror at my phone as I saw the news. Trump was the last standing nominee for the Republican race for the White House. All that could flash through my mind was all of the hateful things he has said about different groups of people, and how much violence has broken out at Trump rallies. I genuinely felt heavy-hearted for America. I felt despondent for the groups of people that had been attacked in Donald Trump's raging bigotry. But mostly, I felt distressed for how this divisive candidate has come between people. I started seeing people post "if you vote for Trump, then we can no longer be friends." That really got me.

I can't stand Trump. I couldn't imagine voting for him. But I also think other people have the right to their own opinion and I live in a country where that right should be protected. I am also a military brat and my family has given up a lot to defend that right, so it's not something I take lightly. I was also raised that it was impolite to ask who someone was voting for or to state who you were voting for, since that was a personal decision and right. While I have my own reason for being against Trump and his stand, I can also understand why someone else may vote for him and again that is their right as a US voter. Our country is in a scary place and politicians have repeatedly let us down. Jobs are leaving the country, and we focus more on the Kardashians than whether our neighbors are OK. Student loans hold our college graduates back. Here is a non-politician promising to be different. That's a comforting idea to people.

I have many friends who are very big Bernie supporters and I heard why they support him. He's different and he's promised change. He has promised to really keep the working class in mind. But then after a while I started to listen to Trump supporters, they had very similar statements to make about what they thought Trump stood for. I've seen the videos of violence breaking out at Trump rallies, I've seen the fights on comments on Facebook and I witnessed people stating they would cut friends and family out of their life if they were a Trump supporter. That's when I realized that letting a silly candidate get in between relationships just because someone has a different opinion just drives more hate. Hatred and anger is one thing that is driving people to Trump. Do you see how this can become a vicious circle very quickly?

I know that this is a very controversial candidate and no one could have dreamed originally that someone who was so ridiculous could make it so far in the Presidential election. I think the idea of Trump as president is terrifying, but what I think is also terrifying is letting him drive people away from each other. I think it's good to have talks with people who are different than you, because it allows you to gain a new understanding of the world.

The argument to this is that Trump has said some horribly racist and derogatory things, and that in supporting him you support those views. For one thing, some people in America unfortunately have those views and I firmly believe that the only way to change those views is through experience. I also don't think that all of Trump supporters are ignorant racists. I know people that support him because they are afraid of things like radical militant religious rule in parts of the world and not being able to support their families because of outsourcing.

In short, I don't know how to fix the country. I don't know how to keep jobs in America, get rid of racism, how to fix childhood poverty or fix our education system. I don't think any candidate is a quick fix solution to these systematic problems. But I do think that election years bring hope of change and that some politicians are great at getting people to believe in change. I don't support Trump or the horrible things he has said, but I do support treating others the way that I would want to be treated. Which is why I don't threaten to cut someone off if they have a different political belief than me. I truly think if we reigned in the hatred for people with other beliefs and worked to respect each other's differences, we wouldn't have politicians like Trump running.