I am not a political person. I am an American.

I am not a political person. I do vote when I feel it matters but I don’t label myself as a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t prescribe by labels. I don’t try to call into groups. I don’t care what your beliefs are, because I respect them. When someone says they don’t get along with one side or the other, it is a sign of weakness, not strength. Your opinions or beliefs are not affecting me, nor is your mind strong enough to change my feelings or perspectives. 

I change my point of view based on facts. Not on groups of squawking demonstrators who have half of a story and refuse to listen to “the other” side.

That said… I am an American. I never imagined I would make a political post, but I also don’t mind sharing my story. When I recently had a person in my Facebook friends make a political post, his comment section turned into an argument. Rather than people respecting others ideals, they started calling each other names and unfriending each other. Adults too. This wasn’t a group of kids. It was grown people with careers, mortgages, and children at home who took the time out of their day to disrespect friends and strangers online, in a public forum. 

When I saw the hate being thrown, I chimed in. Not to take a side. Just to share a perspective and stop the fighting. And guess what… It worked.

My comment on a friend’s post. One that turned a comment section of arguments into respect.

“(Name omitted to respect privacy), from a 42 year old’s perspective. Half black, growing up with racism in my own family. 

When Obama became president, I still wasn’t old or wise enough to understand politics. So, I didn’t really see the laws or policies as much as I was sold on the Hope. My generation, more than anything, grew up with $99 dollar divorces being advertised on TV and we were the first generation with broken homes and no fathers. All we saw were adults arguing and fighting who never knew how to just be peaceful or listen to the other side without judgement or ridicule.

I want to say Obama put that subliminal figure in our heads of Hope. A peaceful world without war. Families coming back together. He was the father most of us didn’t grow up with. We didn’t know we were being sold a bill of goods. And most of my generation never took the time to educate themselves on US and Foreign policy. During or after that time. They just enjoyed the legal weed.

So now, my generation and the younger crowd are still falling for the same Kool-Aid. Democrats have basically advertised themselves with the same marketing campaign as Obama while progressively becoming “worse” essentially. Destroying cities, putting policy in place that are worsening the gap in families, focusing more on letting their voters smoke weed and doing gender swaps and letting it be okay to live on mommy’s couch and still be accepted. What they call freedom isn’t US security. It’s basically fighting for a right to be irresponsible.

So the sad reality is, the majority of these voters or groups like these simply have no education on the topic. They do what their friends do because they want to belong to the cool crowd. They think their right to an opinion overrules facts and logic. It’s sad, because I see it in my own generation. And worse, they are teaching their kids to have an opinion based on individuality or supporting that broken idea of freedom… rather than supporting family or uniting as a people. I’m not saying all. I’m saying many. Especially people that fall into these “groups.”

And sadly, the groups exist on both sides. Both sides have droves of immaturity who all follow the loudest one.

That all said, I read Think Big and Kick Ass and other Trump books long before he was president. His logical and ruthless response to business helped me start on my career to make companies billions in revenue. I admired him as a business man long before the presidency. Most people don’t know who Trump really is. They see his “narcissism.” I see his perseverance and refusal to give up on a goal until he has won.

When he became president and started doing a lot of good for the nation, the media started focusing on the racial divide aspects to sway voters. Mostly to take focus off the fact that Republicans started doing good for the US again, and they didn’t want to get rid of that marketing ideal of Hope in their voters they spent so much time and money on. The sad fact though was, Trump didn’t suddenly make the country racist or hateful again. It’s literally always been there. It was just placed front and center in the spotlight to overshadow what was really happening. Growth.

Now, he is doing an even better job as a President this time around and while we all make mistakes and bad policy is slipped into dockets on both sides, the only real ammunition the “other” side is – look, THEY aren’t like us. 

And that’s where all this comes from. 

There is no such thing as political opinion. Opinion is someone voicing a lack of education on any given topic.

There should only be political facts and education. The problem comes from there being so much stress built on both sides that adults would rather use laugh emojis and talk shit than respectfully listen to others and take the time to understand both, while then showing fact vs fact. One thing Kirk was good at. 

Show me your side, I respect your decision, here are the facts. 

Even in this comment thread, there are people name calling instead of understanding. It’s upsetting to watch, because anyone who is still calling someone names is immature. Plain and simple. And it makes their opinions even more baseless.

None of the BS we are experiencing takes place or comes from the White House or any policy. It comes from people who like to argue. And the desire to be right is so much more important than the desire to be unified, that groups like these will always form.

What the world needs more than anything is Hope. Not marketed hope. But real change. People stopping wars. Coming together. Bringing back the family, etc. Which is exactly what Trump is doing. And he is kicking ass in business. But since “they not like us,” since they don’t support pink hair, men in dresses, or doing drugs instead of having a job, well… Here we are. I don’t agree with both sides on some policies. But I respect people enough to listen with an open heart, and I’m too mature to call someone a name because they have a different perspective than me.

I’m with you brother. Though at some point, we all have to come back together as Americans and listen to each other without getting upset that someone else has different beliefs. Regardless of what side we are on. When that changes, both sides will start looking at the good rather than trying to find stones to throw at the other side.

Americans are supposed to be a country of very different people with very different beliefs and values, who respect the differences in others. Somewhere along the way, it became about being right and wrong and falling into a group. I’m waiting for it to become about one nation, under God.  The only group we should all be trying to be a part of is being Americans.

Then we won’t have any of this BS anymore. We will have a United country.

Democrats and Republicans have forgotten that they are Americans first. And that’s all that should matter.”

I don’t take sides. I just do my best to help people who take sides remember what this country is built on. We are Americans first. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, or what you believe, once you choose not to listen or take the time to understand, your argument is invalid. Once you degrade a person who disagrees with you, you show weakness. Once you close off your mind to a different perspective, you take away your own opportunity to learn something. 

Let’s get back to what our country was built on. Respecting each other, regardless of our differences.