Hillary,

There is no person I'm more proud to have cast my first vote for. You weathered caricature after caricature through the bitter end, with people that constantly depicted you as a corrupt, morally depraved, and untrustworthy criminal. But I saw you as a true progressive, emboldened by the impassioned wing of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. You are the paragon of strength and a true role model for all of us. As even your opponent said, no one can deny your toughness, your grit, your perseverance, all values I hold dear to myself and those close to me.

I stayed up very late that Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. No, not Wisconsin, not Pennsylvania, I thought. Even after the result was clear, when there was no chance left for your victory, I awoke the next morning to hear from Mr. Trump that you congratulated him on his victory, and he reciprocated. Despite this divisive election season, I'm happy that you were able to put your differences aside and champion the values of our democracy.

To those who say, "It's Hillary's fault. Anyone else would have destroyed Trump," I urge you to take a look at the whole GOP primary, where seasoned and experienced establishment politicians like John Kasich, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio fell to a brash businessman with no experience. Working-class white voters who undoubtedly decided the election sought radical, populist change that only one other candidate promised: Bernie Sanders. We have to acknowledge that Trump won, upending our entire political order. He campaigned in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, rust belt states a part of the "blue wall". We thought he was wasting his time. We thought there was no way he could swing those historically democratic states. We were wrong.

I read the transcript of your concession speech later that afternoon and I felt your pain. Few people have worked more tirelessly than you. I have preached the message conveyed your words, "we owe him an open mind and the chance to lead." I think you deserve a break after such a tiring season, yet I know it's not in you to leave the public sphere and disappear. Republican Congressman, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, has already guaranteed that he'd continue a probe of your private e-mail server, despite FBI Director James Comey clearing you of wrongdoing. Twice. I know you'll keep on fighting.

To my fellow liberals,

Fret for now. In our eyes, the worst case scenario in President has been elected to office. We have the embodiment of racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and to some, fascism. He is essentially Hitler reincarnated. I understand the fear that Donald Trump will not follow through on his promise that "I will be president for all Americans." I understand this especially in the context of minority rights.

But, liberal, it is time to look inwards and analyze these worldviews and assumptions we have about our President-Elect and his supporters. There are so many reasons why Trump doesn't even come close to being Hitler. His supporters are not all racist, fascist, or misogynistic. Yes, some, including David Duke, may have been motivated by that aspect, but economic dispossession and opposition to free trade played very large factors. "Okay, then they're just complicit in his bigotry," you say. You point to the statistic that Trump supporters are more uneducated, and flaunt your own intelligence to prove your meritocratic superiority over fellow Trump supporter, as if your opinion and your vote matters more than theirs.

"It's OK to be intolerant of intolerance," you say. "We're on the right side of history," you say. On my newsfeed, this post popped up. I originally thought it satire, but the post was actually serious.

I take solace in the fact that a fringe liberal shared this post of intolerance, just as fringe Trump supporters are the worst of racists. No movement, right or left, should be judged by its fringe members, no matter however the media tries to convince us otherwise.

I'm aware that you are distraught over the results of this election. You have every right to be. But, liberal, shaming Trump supporters and making vast generalizations about their character in this manner only hurts our cause. It perpetuates the stereotype that we are elitist hypocrites. This is precisely the condescending attitude why the core of the democratic coalition, the white working class, was the very group that went 67-28 for Trump. Liberal, ask yourself if your party is still truly the "party of the people".

In my elite, liberal school at Emory University, the primary emotion that circulated campus on Wednesday was shock. How could America elect a bigot, racist, and misogynist? How could half the country believe he was fit to be President? How could more than half the country not believe in what we do?

This shock means something to us: we are in a bubble, an echo chamber where our opinions go unchallenged, and the voices of people who disagree with liberal ideology are not heard.

Liberal, I challenge you in the near future to escape your echo chamber. Listen to those who disagree, even if you believe them wrong, because they are entitled their own opinions. Don't lose passion for your beliefs, but accept that sometimes, you might be misguided. You might be wrong. What this election has shown us is that we are disconnected and divided from the core of Trump's America. We failed to even speculate that he might have won, for reasons other than racism, sexism, and bigotry. I urge you to explore those reasons, and unite with the America that you have grown apart from.

To President-Elect Trump,

I am aware that to an extent, you have been caricaturized by the media. In the same sense that Hillary is an untrustworthy, corrupt criminal, you have been painted as a bigoted, ableist, racist, misogynist, and every other -ist incompetent buffoon. Your words have been taken out of context, although you have said outrageously unacceptable things.

I will stand by the side of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and my fellow Americans against your divisive and discriminatory rhetoric. In the words of Bernie, "Rest assured, there is no compromise on racism, bigotry, xenophobia and sexism. We will fight it in all its forms, whenever and wherever it re-emerges." I am relieved that your campaign has denounced the KKK newspaper endorsement after your initial blunder on the David Duke endorsement. It's a start, and we progressives will vigilantly stand against any words along the line of "grabbing women by the p----" or the mocking of the disabled.

But your behavior since the election has given me hope that this rhetoric was more impulsive opportunism than genuine discrimination. Your victory speech and meeting with President Obama both stressed unity in a peaceful transition of America. You have brought to light the America that the media, the professionals, and the elites have forgotten and ignored. You have made everyone recognize the dispossessed Americans who lashed out against the established political order on Tuesday. You have led one of the most successful populist movements in U.S. history, and against all odds, you won.

I will stress unity among the dark days to come. not only to the racist segment of your supporters emboldened by your victory, but also to rioters enraged by your victory. Without the brash rhetoric, I may have supported your policies (whichever ones I know for sure). As a proponent of Keynesian economics, I think you hit the nail on the head on NAFTA. What many don't understand about NAFTA is its role in our current wave of illegal immigration from Mexico. High corn production in the United States being sent to Mexico displaced millions of small corn farmers in Mexico, many of whom migrated to the United States.

But your rhetoric was just that brash, that hurtful, and that threatening to the ideals of our democracy. That was why Bernie Sanders stressed unity in the Democratic Party, even after it was revealed that the DNC plotted against him. That was why I and most Bernie supporters turned to Hillary Clinton, despite my ideological differences with her hawk and pro-globalization stances.

But when I truly look at your campaign that led you to victory, I realize that I know few of your true policy, besides the fact that you wanted to "build a wall" (is that even possible?), "repeal Obamacare", "stop the TPP", and "drain the swamp" of coruption in Washington. However, it seems like you've already flip-flopped a bit on some of these stances (thank God). I truly fear what your cabinet would look like, and what positions you would appoint Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich to. I am aware that you were one of the most pro-trans GOP candidates in the trans-gendered bathroom debates. I am aware that for most of your life, you were a Manhattanite liberal, and now your policy stances are truly too confusing and unpredictable for me to know what you'll do for sure.

I owe you a chance. I have the privilege to say "surprise me, Donald."