Other than apple pie, the only thing as deeply American is the guaranteed political discourse at Thanksgiving dinner. And, while election night is behind us, the scars of a divisive four years still remain. 

Politics have become a touchy subject for many people. Now more than ever, politics are impossible to escape, as they permeate all of our in-class discussions and social media feeds. Simply because of differences in political beliefs, family discussions are made uncomfortable and friendships are ended.

People have different beliefs; that will always be a fact. However, our focus should be on utilizing our own political beliefs to benefit society as a whole, building up from where we are today. 

Especially in the last four years, politics have deepened the ravine between people on opposing party sides, mostly due to the controversial behavior of our president. Although President-elect Biden made the call for unification in his victory speech, that isn’t exactly a feat that can be accomplished overnight. 

Both parties would need to see each other’s perspective and understand why such blunt division began in the first place. 

Unification is essential to the furthered success and rebuilding of America, but we must also realize moving forward does not mean pretending the past four years never happened. 

We now live in an era where conservatism is largely conflated with “Trumpism.” 

With Trump leaving office, now is the time for the Republican party to divest from the President’s undeniably harmful rhetoric and policy decisions marked by cruelty, like his administration’s policy of family separation at the US-Mexico border, and his tolerance of white supremacy.

However, there is still healing to be done on both sides of the aisle. Distrust in the media is as prevalent as ever, with disinformation spreading rapidly on the internet. 

Media literacy and critical thinking shouldn’t be a rarity, especially for our generation who are just now entering voting age. We need to escape the echo chamber that social media provides, and be willing to listen to reputable sources from multiple perspectives. 

Unfortunately, it seems like more and more of our nation is plagued with blindly following their pundit or news outlet of choice. Whether you lean left or right, an empathetic mind that is open to facts and civil discussion benefits us all. 

It is safe to say Trump will not concede anytime soon, but we can have a head start. Let’s acknowledge the loss as the end of cruelty and divisiveness. We echo the words of President-elect Biden: “Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end – here and now.”