It’s hard to imagine a world without political parties. They are incredibly prevalent today. In fact, political parties have become so powerful and influential that members of Congress will shoot down a bill simply because it was proposed by an opponent of their respective party. It’s not even about the issue that is at hand anymore. It’s about political power.

We seem to forget that we all live in the same country. We all want to survive and flourish under the same flag. Why do we have to argue just to argue? Is it not possible that a Republican in the Senate could support a bill regarding climate change simply because he doesn’t want to see his great-grandchildren live on a climatically unstable and dangerous Earth? Is it not possible that a Democrat in the House could support a bill that regarded stronger enforcement actions on the United States border? It seems impossible that these scenarios could ever happen because of how competitive our elected government officials are due to political affiliations.

To agree to disagree would be the best step America could take. There are serious topics at hand that need to be handled with maturity and therefore, there cannot be any more corruption and abuse of the power that we give our representatives. We are trusting them, and ourselves, to make decisions that are best for us based on our personal ideologies. We should not elect officials who hope to shoot down every bill that isn’t their party’s preference. We need to agree to disagree. We should realize that there is no right answer to an issue and that there is no wrong answer to an issue. When arguing for a cause they believe in, Democrats and Republicans both present real, supported and true facts that support their argument. So, who are we to say one side is wrong and the other side is right? Both sides are right.

The way we should start thinking is to completely pretend the two-party system doesn’t exist. George Washington, in his Farewell Address, warned the country to stay away from political parties. Our first President of the United States left us with this piece of advice and we rudely ignored it. We need to meet in the middle with each other. We need to put parties behind us and look toward working together in a more controlled, rationalized way. The question cannot be “who’s right?” anymore. It needs to be “how do we work together to solve this?”