America awoke the morning of Wednesday, November 8 to a vastly different nation. Many individuals rose to a country where the “red states” were not so red and “blue states” were stronger than before. The news touted, on that day and those that followed, that the Senate and the House of Representatives had changed hands. Enough of the Republican seats were surrendered to Democrat and Independent counterparts to effectively give the Democrats the majority in both legislative houses. Not surprisingly, not every citizen of the United States is pleased with the results.
The red state-blue state divide is never more prevalent than after an election. The mud slinging commercials and slanderous speeches that make for today’s political separations are fairly obvious to most people. To drive the point home even further, numerous newspapers, including The Polytechnic, used a map of the United States to show the results of the election—with the telltale blue and red colors of the two parties. The fixation on the color of each state was the focus of the media long after the polls had closed.
It is time we looked to build a bridge between the divide. For two years, there will not be another major change in the House or the Senate. We can’t change the results of the election, but we can change our response. We can make the decision to “reach across the aisle” and work together. Disregard what party a person is a part of. I hope, in politics, that one day the representatives and senators will look past the color of their state and judge others by their character.
We hold within ourselves dreams and beliefs that supersede our party affiliations. In the end, the people that represent you are, too, Americans before all else. They should not only have their districts’ best interests in mind, but also the nation’s. It is time that we stop looking through red-or-blue colored glasses and start seeing things for ourselves. Yes, we are Americans, and that means that even if your candidate did not win, you still have a voice and a vote. Use that voice and work together, for when we work together anything is possible. In two years, use your vote to praise those that have done a good job and admonish the poor performers.
