As a Libertarian voter, my opinion during the campaign season was highly dismissed as a wasted opinion. An ignorant voter pursuing a lost cause, just another vote for Trump or Hillary, despite the fact that I voted specifically for Gary Johnson. I'm not here to say that America is doomed, or that the DNC is responsible for Trump's victory, you can Google that shit and find hundreds of articles on that.

I'm here to say something a little different...I'm here to help re-establish common sense.

At this point, America is Gotham City, for in the words of the Joker: "All it takes is a little...push" to send every angst-ridden, deeply oppressed millennial into a frenzy of flag-burning tolerance across our nations colleges, a level of upheaval perhaps not seen on colleges since Kent State in 1970.

Don't misinterpret my meaning: I'm sure at this point I sound like a backwards, gunslingin' hick from the deep south, 2016's image of oppression. I'll concede that there is a reason why this image of conservative, rural voters is equivocated with hatred and bigotry: surely most racists and bigots are identifying Republicans.

But not every Republican is a racist. At least, not openly. However, I understand that the liberal population of America feels betrayed. They feel that hatred, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, arachnophobia, coulrophobia, mesothelioma, osteoporosis, and other such words from the Democratic Dictionary have triumphed over America. But Americans didn't elect Trump because he feared women, or Muslims, or spiders. Americans elected Trump because, really, they were sick of being viewed as having the same qualities that were prescribed to Trump.

Let me explain: the left has quite the arsenal of insults to describe non-millennial, non-Democratic voters. Alt-righters (essentially the same as far-leftists) typically rely on awkward phrases such as "libcuck" to describe their political enemies, but both Democrats and Republicans view these far-spectrum voters as idiots, so these insults hardly stand. But labeling someone as a bigot, a racist, a homophobe, or a rapist can have severe consequences, especially in an age where racial sensitivity and tolerance are the norm (that's a good thing, by the way). And with the rise of the internet, the frequency of these words being used can almost detract from their meaning. In other words, if you describe someone as the bottom of the barrel, the worst of the worst, in every argument you engage in without any other evidence, your argument becomes pretty invalid.

Still, right-wing voters have been labeled by these words even before this election, going way back to Obama v. Romney, and even Obama v. McCain. While certainly there are racists who vote for the right for their conservative ideologies, I feel that most Republicans and Democrats vote based on party-alliance, so the idea that all Republicans are racist for voting for their party is essentially the same idea that all Democrats are whiny, pampered socialists (again, untrue). So, the idea that voting 3rd party was nothing more than a useless "protest vote" becomes very invalid when realizing that Trump voters were essentially voting for a change in their image. Hell, Trump considered himself the Republican-equivalent of an anti-establishment candidate on the likes of Bernie Sanders (albeit less cuddly).

I am not a Trump supporter. I despised the things he said about women and immigrants. I despised Hillary and the corruption of the DNC. But I'd like to think that I'm the right mixture of intelligence and common sense to realize that, despite Trump's reckless and informal behavior throughout the election, most voters were able to ignore his words, because every time the left threw out their same arsenal of words against Trump, Republican voters felt it was just more of the same.

I'm going to end this by going over my favorite reaction to Trump's victory: that by Stephen Colbert. In his very logical and hopeful response, Colbert states that there are plenty of common, silly things that bring us together as Americans. Eating Kit-Kat bars piece-by-piece instead of chomping into the whole thing at once is just one way that Americans are united, according to Colbert.

"You cannot laugh and be afraid at the same time, and the devil cannot stand mockery."

So come on, America. Don't scream, kick, and throw things like babies. Laugh, love, and come together like much cuter babies. Remember that we're Americans before we are Democrats and Republicans. Remember that if Trump fails, then America fails. Optimism probably sounds useless right now, but cynicism doesn't solve problems: it only identifies them. Take a breath of relief, the election may be over, but America isn't done yet.