Disclaimer: If you try to contact me in any way to discuss my beliefs listed in this article, I will not respond to you. If you want to be classy about it, write a response article and keep my name out of it.

I risk a lot writing this article but note that I DO NOT AFFILIATE with a single party. Each party, including 'third-party' groups, have good and bad points and opinions on how this country should take its next steps.

Thank you for reading.

I like guns, pro-choice, gay rights, and equal rights for women. I like public healthcare, freedom of religion (separate from the government), and every color skin I see. I like that I grew up somewhere that was brought up on the intention of freedom, and equality, and red, white, and blue.

But do you know what red, white, and blue is?

It's not white supremacy or low-grade education. Red, white, and blue is not rape culture, and anyone who thinks that's acceptable can burn in hell where they belong. Red, white, and blue is not legalizing every drug you can, and the FDA approving everything even when the risks outweigh the benefits. Red, white, and blue is not pipelines through sacred land, and it's not going so far into debt that other countries own parts of our beautiful nation's soil.

Notice how I just sh*t on both major parties? Everybody is wrong. Does nobody see that you're all so set on being liked or trying to get a laugh that you are all blatantly un-American? There is a middle ground that nobody ever seems to want to tread.

Red, white, and blue is every race, every religion, every sexuality and gender identity, getting an education (not just college), marriage, and the right to birth control if that's what someone needs in their life. They are all things that you don't get to have an opinion over because you are wrong, always. Do not act like you are better than other people. Do not act like you know everything about them based on their culture or any preference of the items listed above. DO NOT tell me or anyone else how to live their lives.

I'm here to break it to you; your opinion holds no weight in anyone's life but your own.

My family is guilty of this. It p*sses me off to hear or see my family member act like a close-minded prick in front of their friends because my town is white trash and that's what everyone there has to say. For someone who wants a government job, they surely don't care about listing their affiliation. Yes, there are laws that are supposed to keep people from not hiring you for those reasons, but people will find another reason not to and I've warned them. Do you really want who you vote for to ruin your life? It's nobody's business. Don't screw yourself out of a job because you have something 'smart' to say.

Stop posting your political affiliations on social media. Stop broadcasting it thinking you're funny and/or will hold higher in your friends' opinions. Do not sh*t on the opposite party platform or opinions on social media. Stop being a child. You can have an adult, calm, and fact-based discussion, but stop being crazy and close-minded when you have a conversation.

You can express a belief without supporting a party, especially when both parties had less-than-stellar candidates this past election. Do not lump yourself in with the negatives of either party. The people headlining for both were both criminals in their own right; they both are incredibly awful people.

Most of all, stop losing friends over all of this for no good reason. If you want everyone you are friends with to have the same opinions as you, you may as well be alone and talk to a mirror. It's good to have many different people in a discussion. Everyone having the same tunnel-vision opinions are how the party system started, and why there are very ignorant groups of people out there today.

I have had to learn on my own to accept every group of people, but the one group I won't accept are the ignorant ones. This country is growing, and the people in it need to do so as well. Stop being blind to the world and the fact that your way of life is not the only one that is right or wrong. Open up your eyes and move forward, not backwards. You'll live a better life because of it.