If I’d known then what I know now, I never would have gotten involved in politics. It is not that I hate politics, in fact, I find I’m very much in love with it. The ability to have diverse ideas on similar issues and (for the most part) civically work things out fascinates me. However, it still wouldn’t change the fact that if I’d known the world would come to this insane society it has I don’t think I would ever take a step into the political field. But, politics is my passion and I wouldn’t want to do anything else with my life now.

The reason I say this is because over the past decade things in the political field have become so polarized to one side or the other of the political spectrum. And while there is nothing wrong with holding your own viewpoint or opinion, what is wrong is the inability to work together to achieve the betterment of the American people.

Overall, I find this flat out exhausting.

Now I know, I take a more conservative stance, but I think a lot of us can, in general, agree that in order to get along you just have to be a decent person. But we’ve gotten so caught up in this idea of “my way or the highway,” and it’s brought this stalemate in America to where nothing is getting done. No one is fixing anything because we are all too busy trying to get our way where we should be negotiating and finding a moderate stance between the two highly polarized groups that would benefit the country and have ties to both conservative and liberal ideals.

The problem is that both polarized sides don’t want to work together. Both sides agree poverty is bad, world hunger is bad, terrorism is bad, and war is ugly, but for some reason, they can’t seem to just put aside their pride and figure things out. And this is a call, as I mentioned above, to both sides. A lot of media likes to call out the liberals for being “crybabies” or the infamous term “snowflakes,” but there are just as many “snowflakes” on the right than there are on the left.

I know there are some issues also that some groups find as a non-negotiable stance. For example, abortion can’t be really negotiated. There’s truly a “you are for it or you’re against” stance to this, but that doesn’t mean we can’t approach discussion civilly. There still should be a way to discuss and debate issues without screaming at the sky or throwing fists.

And protesters should be doing more than protesting. Most issues protested are already known about. The protests do nothing. They just show what we already know: a mass support for one side of an issue. And don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly a way for our voices to be heard in our representative democracy, but if people really want to make a change that’s where the involvement comes in. Party donations, voting, and even getting involved in politics and actively seeking out civil dialogue with others is a way that will impact and change can be made, instead of harassing passersby or stopping traffic all for something everyone already knows there is massive support for.

We also, on both sides again, need to learn to accept things that have already happened and facts. You can’t fight facts, and you won’t always agree with them, but you still can’t say a fact is necessarily wrong. Now there can be biased polling and bias research, but when extensive research comes out after years and years of data collection things can’t be proven wrong. We as people must accept that whether we like it or not. And we also have to accept the way the government works and who’s been elected because we might not like it but it was done how every election has been done in the past. It just happened this time one person won or the other. And that goes for both sides, from the 2016 presidential election to the most recent Alabama Representative special election. The results are the results, so if you’re that upset about it that’s where your involvement comes in.

However, involvement shouldn’t this high ground of “resistance” or supremacy. It should be the efforts to bridge the two parties to a cohesive compromise. If we resist nothing will ever get done, and nothing will change. The change starts with us: the people.

And if we the people can't even hold a dialogue that's civil and collaborative, how do we expect our representatives to do the same in office?