There’s no use now trying to dismantle all the hate speech Donald Trump has spewed throughout this election season - the damage has already been done. As election day rapidly approaches, the question we must ask ourselves now is how do we recover? What stereotypes have our children already internalized? Where do we go from here?

America’s slate has never been a clean one. There are black marks throughout the history of this country that will never be erased, even as our politicians attempt to pretend that these events never occurred. That being said, this election has been one marked by racist, xenophobic, sexist, and violent commentary on one side and corruption on the other. It’s time to face it - we’ve been compromised by our very own government. Locked into a thriving two-party system, we have been forced to decide which candidate is the lesser of the two evils. And the weight of this decision is clear - when is the last time the morale of the American people has been this low?

For the past year, we’ve been exposed to offensive language about just about every oppressed group I can think. We’ve heard one side of the campaign attempt to normalize sexual assault, call women everything from nasty to pigs to flat-out liars for trying to speak out about being assaulted. At first, it was easy to dismiss this behavior as that reflecting the outliers of our nation. We thought, no one really believes these things, do they? But one thing this election has done is shed light on all the friends we have, all the people in our lives we thought were sane who also happen to be casual racists and misogynists.

So where do we go from now? The election is just a few weeks away now - no matter the outcome, this election season has made it clear that America clearly has some issues that need to be addressed. How do we move on from this? How do we tell our children that the leaders they are seeing on TV, the ones who are supposed to represent the very best and wisest of us, can’t even behave maturely for a televised debate. The question that will remain after the election asks us to look inside ourselves and reflect on our own beliefs. Will we, as Americans, use this election as a catalyst to change or will it continue - as it’s done for the last year - to drive us farther apart and farther from the values our countries were supposed to be founded upon. The choice is ours now to make and the time to make a decision is rapidly approaching. Will we work together to clean up the wreckage of this election and educate ourselves and others - or has the damage already been done?