I’ve been asked a lot this election season “what’s so wrong with the two parties we have?” I could talk for hours on their policies, but those ultimately come down to people disagreeing on how to solve our issues. The problem is much bigger, and deeper, than just petty disagreement.

The problem is division.

Trump, and the Republican Party, are running on a platform that’s all about division. They’re gonna deport 11 million people, build a wall to keep people out, and bomb the hell out of everyone who is different. If you don’t agree with them, you’re just an Islam loving Marxist. They’ve built a platform based on fear of being different.

Clinton, and the Democratic Party, are running on a platform that’s all about division. They’re gonna steal from the rich, force us to think and speak in a way they think is morally just, and bomb the hell out of everyone who is different. If you don’t agree with them, you’re just a bigot who hates women and non-whites. They’ve built a platform based on fear of thinking different.

Both spend more time demonizing the other than they do talking about the issues and their platform. Even worse, they spend great energy bashing American citizens who aren’t voting for them rather than celebrating that our system even allows that (many in the world don’t).

Our country is more divided today than it ever was in my short life thus far. Both will tell you that it’s us who’ve changed. We’ve become more sexist, racist, unpatriotic, and non-religious. They, and the media who are in their back pocket, are convincing us to blame the “other letter” and our neighbors.

The reality is, it’s not our neighbor’s fault. It’s not the “other letter’s” fault. Both letters equally share all the blame for this catastrophe.

They’ve presided over this country as its taken a downward spiral, both socially and economically. With every election cycle, they take more power with promises to “fix it”. Yet, with every election cycle, it only gets worse. In the past 4 years we’ve seen a sharp rise in racially motivated crimes, racial separatist groups, and loud calls for gender and racial segregation. We’ve also seen an extreme rise in the labeling of those who think different as untouchable. Racist, sexist, misogynist, Marxist, etc have become a daily part of our social interactions.

It’s not the fault of those who led the civil rights charge of the 60s and 70s. It’s not the fault of those who were raised in a country with some of the best civil rights in the world. Blaming those who carried the torch for equality and togetherness is idiotic.

No, it’s wholly the fault of the political climate the broken two party system has created.

We no longer celebrate our differences. We demonize them and try and make them the same. It’s a crying shame when that happens on an identity level. It’s downright fearful when it happens on an intellectual level. Unfortunately for America, we’re being bombarded on both fronts.. First by our politicians, and then by our peers who are following their leaders.

But the truth is, we’re not the same. We’re all different, all unique. Each and every one of us brings something special to the table. We can challenge each other, debate with each other, learn from each other, and (most importantly) grow together.

We need to stop shouting people down. We need to stop tuning people out who share a different opinion. We need to stop demonizing people who look and think differently and, instead, start celebrating the uniqueness they bring to the table.

That will never happen with these two parties in power. It can’t happen. They’re too stuck on keeping their power to stop and look in the mirror, and so they pass the buck to us. They tell us the other one is to blame because that’s easier than owning their mistakes.

They’ve created this political landscape they speak so lowly of. These historically unlikable, and unfavorable, candidates are the creations of their self created machine. Think about that for a minute — these two candidates we all dislike, themselves included, are a product of their own broken system. Yet they want us to believe that they’re different. That they can fix the system they’ve played a huge role in creating. They’ve made this bed, and we’re the ones who have to lie in it.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not quite ready to lay down.