On Nov. 8, a plurality of electoral college votes were won by a businessman who used a populist message to capture the dissatisfaction the white working class has felt for years.
The election itself was incredibly polarizing. Day after day for over a year, our differences were shoved into our faces. The election is now behind us, but those same issues are no more resolved with this party change in the White House. Civic engagement and open dialogue are our only way through this tumultuous era.

President-elect Donald Trump won fair and square within the system we have, making reactionary qualms about the electoral college a moot point. If we want to seriously scrutinize it, the time for that is in two years, not in the aftermath of an election one may not be happy with.

Do not let any media source, or any friend for that matter, tell you that this election was a blowout or a landslide for the Republican party. President-elect Trump does not have a mandate from the American people. Not only did Republican margins in the Senate and House decrease, but his Democratic opponent won the popular vote by more than 2,400,000 votes. Let that sink in. A number of Americans equivalent to the population of New Mexico chose a candidate who lost the electoral college.
It is true that critical Midwestern states that voted for President Barack Obama twice swung to Trump, but his winning margin in Michigan is less than 12,000 votes and less than 30,000 in Wisconsin. He does not have an unalienable protection from criticism because he won the highest office in America by the skin of his teeth. But no amount of peaceful protest in the streets will change that, as therapeutic as it may be to partake in.

Now, I’m not here to talk about how I think the (frankly, pathetic and out-of-touch) Democratic party needs to clean house and completely change its face after their embarrassing losses at the state and federal level in 2010, 2014 and now 2016. I’m not here to voice concerns about what Trumpian nominations to the Supreme Court could mean for women, LGBT individuals and other vulnerable members of society. I’m here to talk about how we move forward through this assuredly divisive era.

We move forward, (together), by participating in civil discourse.

We, the rising generation, will be a bulk of the electorate in the coming years. It is our duty now more than ever to invest time and energy into informing ourselves from reputable sources, forming opinions, and standing by them vocally and intelligently.

We have to get out of our personal echo chambers and talk to people who disagree with us. It’s always been true that people prefer to hear things they agree with, but with social media, it’s easier than ever to enter a polarizing bubble. It is imperative that we do not let harsh rhetoric deter us from standing up for what we believe, but also listen to those who disagree with us.

Personally, I’m petrified about what the next four years may yield in terms of the environment and global relations. I have experienced days of rabid article-reading about Trump’s transition team. I will be an avid, civil watchdog of this administration, just as many did when a middle aged black man took the office promising change four years ago.

Politics are cyclical in nature, and I believe that American democratic ideals will survive this turn.

We must stand by the free press, inform ourselves to the best of our abilities, and unabashedly condemn what threatens our values.

But we will stagnate as a nation if we do not stop painting each Trump voter as racist and liberals as unpatriotic rabble rousers. If we go down that path, there is no road we can share moving forward.