My decision of who to vote for was one of the hardest decisions I've faced in a very long time. Both of the main candidates were deplorable, awful people and my moral center just couldn't handle having to vote for them. I liked the look of the third party candidates more, but I worried I would be throwing away my vote if I voted for them. The weeks leading up to the election were full of flip-flopping from one candidate to another until I decided what was the most important thing to me, and I voted accordingly.
I know of a woman who could not bring herself to vote for Trump because of her bad experiences with misogynistic men in her past, so she voted for Clinton despite not trusting her.
I know of another woman who loved Hillary and voted for her wholeheartedly.
I know of a woman who prayed about the decision, and felt prompted to vote for Trump.
I know a woman who despised both candidates and supported Evan McMullen through the whole last months of the election.
As for me, I decided to weigh my decision on the supreme court: Which political party better fits with my opinions and beliefs? I decided that, despite liking McMullen best, I would vote for Trump because he was the Republican candidate, and so would appoint Republican justices, who would rule in favor of decisions closer to what I believe.
I'd come to grips with my decision, felt good about it even, as the protests and #notmypresident and the constant barrage of anti-Trump articles filled my Facebook newsfeed. Then, I saw this on my feed because it was liked by one of my friends:
I know it wasn't meant for me personally, but it hurt me. All the other "people who voted for Trump are stupid" articles hadn't affected me at all, but this did. What I saw was blatant, unapologetic judgement on me as a person because of who I voted for. I must be a racist, I must hate handicapped people, I must be sexist and a bully if I voted for Donald Trump. Nevermind that I am a woman, that my all-time favorite job was working with handicapped adults, that I've never seen myself as better than anyone else because of skin color, and that I've worked my whole life to be kind to everyone. I must be awful because I voted for Trump.
This battle between the political parties needs to stop. I think Hillary is an evil woman, and yet I do not think less of anyone who voted for her. I think Trump is a tactless, horrible person, too, but a decision had to be made and I made it as best I could. We need to understand that each side had to concede something to be able to vote at all in this election. There was no "lesser of two evils"; it was just a matter of which evil, in your opinion, would do the most good in office. We do not need to attack those who voted differently from us. Everyone has different backgrounds, different experiences and different priorities which affected their vote. We cannot judge a person's vote because we do not know what motivated them to vote that way.
We are all children of God. We all are endowed with the same gift of agency, which includes the ability to choose who we vote for. Maybe it would have been easier to sit this election out, to call all the options bad and screw this, I'm not voting. But we didn't; we tried to be good citizens by participating in the decision that will affect the next four years of our nation. No one should be labeled as a bad person for doing that. Good for you for voting, no matter who you voted for.
If we are going to make sure that this nation is a good place to live in for the next four years, we need to start by loving each other. Clinton and Trump supporters must work together for this nation to run. The election is over, and I don't believe anyone is truly happy with the results, but now it's time to move forward.
The honest truth is that Trump doesn't determine our happiness, the quality of our friendships, or our degree of political participation: We do. It is still up to us, and with a touch more kindness than we have been having since the election, the world will improve, regardless of who our president is or what he does while in office. There are more of us than there is of him. We the people have the power to make this nation better.
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