It all started with this tweet from conservative talking head Dinesh D'Souza:

At Donald Trump's presidential rally in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday, First Lady Melania Trump opened with a reading of the Lord's Prayer, followed by a short speech about her duties as First Lady before turning the mic over to her husband.

Guys, I never wanted to find myself in the position of having to defend a Trump, but people from both ends of the political spectrum made me do it this time.

I grew up in a conservative household, and before last year, I always considered myself politically moderate.

That changed last year.

With the candidacy and eventual election of Donald Trump, something snapped in me. I had to think about what kind of world I wanted to leave behind for my possible children and grandchildren, and I decided to switch teams.

In addition to being a liberal, I am also an agnostic atheist.

No, I don't worship Satan, I don't burn churches, I don't eat babies, and I still appreciate it when you say "bless you" after I sneeze. And yes, I still love the Christians in my life. We're still friends, right?

So why do I even bother commenting on this non-news story? It's because the reactions from both sides of the aisle make me angry and embarrassed.

My biggest problem with the Republican Party has always been the strong, pervasive Christian influence. As a secular American, I feel unwelcome and even vilified by the right because of what I believe (or don't.) Don't believe me? Just look at this headline from The Blaze!

And the comments are even lovelier!

Here's the thing, conservatives: I'm not offended at all. I can assure you others on the left aren't either.

So Melania professed her faith. Who cares? She can if she wants to, and she has every right to, as long as she isn't hurting anybody or pushing her beliefs on someone.

The United States was founded on freedom of religion, which means freedom of all religions, not just Christianity.

Also, enough "Melania is so brave for professing her faith in this godless society!" There's nothing inherently brave (or cowardly) about being Christian in America. It's the norm. You know where it is brave to be Christian? Afghanistan, where Christian persecution is an actual thing.

I'm not finished yet, however. I have a few words for my own camp.

Liberals: some of you mock the First Lady for her thick accent and supposedly poor grasp on the English language (I'm looking at you, Chelsea Handler.) Aren't we supposed to be the party that embraces diversity and the big, beautiful melting pot of cultures that America is? Aren't we the first ones to show compassion to immigrants, legal or otherwise? Think about this: would you treat another immigrant with weak English the same way you treat Melania? Thought not.

FLOTUS speaks six languages: English, Slovene, German, French, Italian and Serbo-Croatian. I'm willing to bet a majority of the people who bust her stones about her English only speak one. Please, if you can't speak a foreign language yourself, don't mock anyone else's broken English.

Bottom line: neither party is perfect. People on both sides say and do foolish, sometimes hypocritical things that embarrass me, and I believe if you aren't embarrassed by both parties at some point, you're doing this American thing wrong. We can do better at reaching across the aisle. We must do better. We won't heal the deep political divide if we can't look at ourselves and think "Hmmmm, maybe we do need to show compassion to conservatives, who knows what's happening in their lives," or "Hmmmm, maybe I should listen to my atheist neighbor, she might actually be pretty cool."