A few month ago I wrote an article, I Voted Trump, attempting to explain how sad I found the reactions of everyone who disagreed with those who voted for Trump. Those reactions were and still are filled with nothing but malice and hate.

Recently I have received a lot of comments regarding how people "hope I regret my choice" and essentially thanking me for helping to subject America to where we are today, partisan gridlock and in-fighting.

I do NOT regret my choice, nor would I expect anyone else who voted for anyone else to regret theirs.

As for who holds the fault in the partisan hell that America is currently facing, we ALL do. This is not a republican problem, this is not a democrat problem, this is not even a congressional problem.

This is an American Society problem.

That is right, it is ALL of our fault that Americans can not seem to work together on anything nor can they even agree on anything other than how when times are tough, the best thing to do is hurl insults and blame at one another.

How have we gotten here?

Our American government is FOR the people, BY the people. Our leaders in the States and Federal government are acting upon what their constituents find important; if they do not do that, then they are pushing themselves out of a job next term. That is, after all, the whole point of the way our system is set up.

Now, where exactly does society come in? We start the fighting.

We have cultivated a society of people who engage only in extremes. It is either black or white, there is absolutely no middle ground.

If we are talking about abortion, it is either all abortions should be allowed or no abortions should be allowed. There is no room in this fight for outside voices to interject with suggestions like abortions could be allowed for certain circumstances, such as the life of the mother or child is in danger or rape. If we are talking about welfare, we are talking about everyone being able to receive welfare or cutting the programs so next to no one is receiving welfare. For some crazy reason, none of us are listening to behavioral experts who tell us that welfare programs can actually be highly effective if used in a certain way which does include some limits (read "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much" by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir). But no, it is either all or nothing.

The lines have been drawn and we have all chosen our sides.

However, we do not stop by simply choosing our sides. No, we step it up a notch and begin what can only be described as a tunneling effect; we can only see the things on our side as right, everything else is inherently wrong. Again, no blurred lines. From there we escalate yet again as we spew partisan propaganda (strong but true) which all too often includes degrading and ridiculing the opposite side, who is also in their own tunnel spewing the same things right back.

Imagine a high school dodgeball game. The teams have been split and the line has been drawn. Now in every dodgeball game, you have the fearless, the ones who run up to the middle line and then retreat throwing dodgeballs across the line aiming for the other team. You also have the slightly more timid players who don’t engage much until they are brought into the game by being forced to dodge or throw dodgeballs themselves. Those people, are who I would describe as the moderates. They are part of the team but they do not necessarily believe that in order for them to survive, the other team has to be annihilated as the fearless, think extremists, do.

Now imagine if you can, the partisan dodgeball game. You have the fearless lobbying their partisan opinions and insults over to the other side inevitably flying past the timid again and again until they too are brought into the war of the game. So the game continues, getting more and more fierce with every throw. Leaving no more room for the timid, they are forced to join the fearless extremists. We give them no option because in a world of right and wrong you cannot possibly be BOTH right and wrong.

At least that is what we have made ourselves believe.

So no, no I do not regret my voting decision. If anything, I looked at Trump as a fairly moderate Republican in many different areas. I had hoped that with a more moderate leader we could finally learn how to put the definition of “compromise” to use. Although such a thing may seem bleaker now than ever, I know that it is all up to us.

How can we expect our leaders to compromise if we cannot do so ourselves?

How can we expect our leaders to be respectful of other opinions if we are not ourselves?

How can we expect our leaders to change if we do not change ourselves?

This is a government FOR the people BY the people. It is up to us.