Here it is. A day most of have been dreading for the past year. The day when we decide the future of the country… and based on current foreign wars, the world.

I’m not here to tell you how to vote or even how I voted. If you know me at all, you can probably figure that out for yourself. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

You know, every four years pundits and news media start pumping the idea that IF WE DON’T WIN, THIS COULD BE THE LAST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EVERRRRRRRRR. And yet. Somehow every four years we have another election. Funny how that works. And there’s a good chance that right now as you’re reading this, you’re thinking “OKAY, but THIS TIME it’s different.”

And you’re wrong. You just are.

I’m not saying that there aren’t serious consequences to this election. The stakes are very high. But time has an interesting way of marching on no matter how the battle is won. The world won’t actually end.

Honestly, I would probably look at this election a lot more calmly if it weren’t for the economy and the massive, bloody proxy wars our nation is participating in.

What worries me isn’t the consequences of this election. What worries me is the way we are as a nation leading into it.

When I was a kid, there was a Left and a Right. Those sides would yell and scream and make fools of themselves, but then they would sit down to dinner and behave like civilized human beings. In some cases, the dinner was Thanksgiving and the person on the other side of the aisle was your Uncle who taught you how to drive and thinks it’s hilarious to fart at a funeral. And that is the way it is supposed to be. The Left and the Right are not meant to be soldiers fighting to the death. They’re meant to be a see-saw. Neither side is supposed to win. They’re meant to balance each other out. Conservatives are meant to preserve history and western civilization. Liberals are supposed to challenge those ideas and ask “but is this good or just old”? Preserving the way things always have been can often mean holding onto bad ideas. But taking liberalism into progressivism is just constant destruction and revolution.

At this moment, two sides of this country have diametrically opposite views of reality. Not opposing philosophies… one person sees a dog and another sees a panzer tank.

There are people who believe that the ends justify the means, to the point that when Donald Trump, the former President of the United States was nearly assassinated, a third of this country was disappointed that his head wasn’t blown off. Left Wing influencer Destiny (that is what he calls himself) laughed at fireman and father Corey Comperatore’s death in the shooting. He wasn’t alone.

On both sides, there are people who believe that anyone who feels differently than they do are both evil and an existential threat.

They’re not.

Donald Trump is in no way, shape or form a Fascist or the next Hitler. Destiny isn’t evil… he’s just a miserable asshole.

No one deserves to die.

The people you disagree with are not comic book supervillains. And you aren’t some kind of hero, saving the country with your vote or your tersely-worded social media post.

We are all just people. We do our best with what we are given. We make the best choice we can for ourselves and our children. Sometimes we get it wrong. That includes YOU. And it includes me. Sometimes I am wrong. That doesn’t make us evil. It doesn’t make us stupid. And it doesn’t make us crazy.

It’s called being human.

If you want the world to be a better place, you actually have to act like it. Don’t fight with the people you disagree with. TALK TO THEM. Maybe they’ll learn something. And if you’re as good and honest as you believe you are, maybe you’ll learn something as well.

The thing is, you’ve been convinced that this one election is the end of the world. So you’re going to watch the coverage tonight with your pundit of choice. Maybe the person you want is winning. Maybe he or she is losing. Your anxiety is spiking.

No one can predict the future. I don’t know whether you’ll be filled with joy or dread at the end of this. But what I can tell you is this. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, the sun will rise. And it will continue to rise everyday thereafter.

So please… be kind.