I think that most people can agree that 2016 has been a shitty year, generally speaking. The year was plagued with the death of very beloved celebrities such as Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Prince, Gary Marshal, Anton Yelchin, Alan Thicke, George Michael, and Carrie Fisher. The year was also plagued with needless acts of violence from the Black Lives Matter and SJW activists riots to terrorist attacks committed by both Islamic extremists as well as domestic terrorists committed by white people and black people alike. The year was also haunted by very ugly presidential campaigns by both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and it was finally revealed (as if most people didn’t already know) how corrupt the democratic system is and how pathetic the mainstream media is. So with all of that being said, I am sure that many of us will be sitting up on New Year’s Eve to watch 2016 die and I suspect that many of us will have a hell of a time at the wake. But once the partying is over and our hangovers are cured, one question will have to be answered: what happens next?

The easy answer, and the answer that we tell ourselves every year, is that life goes on. While that is certainly true and it is important to go on living life, the simple fact remains that we have a lot of problems with our government and our media and then average American tends to have an attention span of eight seconds (one second shorter than that of a goldfish). For this reason, I have several new year’s resolutions, not for me, but for the media and the mainstream democratic party, because that is what we, as American citizens, deserve.

Firstly, the media should actually try their hand at journalism once more rather than this reality TV bullshit that gets them ratings. I, and any intelligent American, do not care what Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump has to say about the other’s personality or whether or not they are legitimately qualified. The media spoke way too much about that in the course of this election, not only in the general election but in the primaries as well. I cannot tell you how many times I was watching a Bernie Sanders interview on CNN or MSNBC when they disrupted the interview and committed journalism malpractice by asking his thoughts on Hillary Clinton’s damn emails, his approval of Barack Obama, or any of the random bullshit that just so happened to spew out of Donald Trump’s mouth that week. I understand why they’re doing this (because drama=ratings, of course) but it is completely insulting to the inelegance of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and their entire audience. It is the job of journalists to get to the truth, not report what one candidate says about the other and then ask their opinion on that because their opinion is completely irrelevant. And for the record, Bernie did a great job at refusing to go down their path and sticking with the issues while Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and most of the Republicans fell into that trap time and time again (do we need to be reminded of Donald Trump’s ridiculous small hands freak out and the over coverage of Marco Rubio for making that comment?). Also because of this, the media is at least somewhat responsible for the rise of Donald Trump? Why? Because they underestimated him. They failed to report the truth when it comes to Mr. Trump because in their mind, Hillary was a shoe in. They assumed that she would win and because of that, they became what the first three letters of “assume” spells out.

Secondly, the Democratic Party must learn from their mistakes. In December 2016 we already are having reports of Hillary Clinton or possibly Tim Kaine running in 2020 and if either of these two scenarios happen, the DNC will no doubt back them yet again and they will lose yet again. People are sick and tired of moderate or conservative democrats. They want liberals; they want progressives like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Keith Ellison, or Tulsi Gabbard. The straw that broke the camel’s back in Hillary’s campaign was when she picked Tim Kaine as her running mate, who is actually worse than she is. If she would have picked a progressive or maybe even played it conservatively and picked the likeable Martin O’Malley, she might have won. But no, they don’t learn for their mistakes and they keep making the same ones over and over and over again and wonder why they never win. The DNC was able to fake out the public when they allowed the seemingly progressive but realistically massively regressive Barack Obama to be the nominee. They reason they allowed this is because they secretly knew that Obama was really one of them and they went all out to make sure Bernie Sanders never got power because they knew that he wasn’t in their club. Until they figure this out, they will continue to lose until the party eventually rolls over and dies.

Lastly, I want to talk specifically about the American people. We as Americans will not be silenced! We will not forget about the corrupt system and the inconsistencies when it comes to civil rights. We will fight more for the truth and less for a certain ideology. We will fight for common sense and intelligence rather than be the mindless sheep and just fall in line. This is our country, not the corporations and we will take it back. We will move forward with love rather than hate and we will rise!