I am not for Trump. I am not for hate and racism, but I am for the Republican Party. For the people infuriated by the outcome of the election, it is time to handle the situation and respect that Trump won the election, and there is nothing we can do about it. The most patriotic thing we can do is support our chosen leader. I would be saying this about Clinton if she had gotten elected as well.

Some liberals say that they are open minded yet they refuse to see the conservative side without saying they hate us or that we are terrible people. Just because a conservative doesn’t support something does not mean we hate the person who made that choice.

I am pro-life, but I am not going to scream at you for being pro-choice. I may not be for all the things the LGBTQ movement stands for, but I can still love an LGBTQ person. My best friend is gay and I love him just as I would love any friend. I will not tell anyone that they are wrong or even try to make them believe what I do because I understand that we have different views, and I’m okay with that. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) tells us Trump is not for same-sex marriage rights, but there is nothing he can do to change what the Supreme Court has established and there is no reason to be afraid of him. I get that people are afraid, and thinks he hates them, but he does not hate the LGBTQ community simply because he does not support same-sex marriage.

If I tried to say any of this to my some of my liberal friends, most of them would be very frustrated with me or accuse me of hatred. The other day a friend told me “I’m not for the Republicans because I’m not for hate,” Anna Losen ’17 said. This almost sounds contradictory. My friend refused to see my side of the spectrum and why I believe what I do, and in return yelled at me and said she hated the conservatives.

Losen is not the only one to react to the election this way, of course. “They (people) may have heard things that are worse than they are in reality and had strong emotions about these things,” Xavier Leonard ’17 said. Leonard considers himself more liberal than conservative.

Voters were so influenced by social media this election, that all of the negative things said about Trump were the only thing influencing their vote. “I went to this town hall meeting with my grandparents who are conservatives and they were both voting for Trump before that because they didn’t have Twitter,” Cole Kramersmeier ’17 said. “They weren’t hearing that he was a horrible person day in and day out.”

Not all Trump supporters, like Kramersmeier, were sure of their vote towards the beginning of the election process. “They said, ‘So you’re probably going to want to vote from Trump after this’ and I just went ‘Eh I’m not sure, let’s see what happens,’”Kramersmeier said, “So I went there and I listened and he’s not all over the place just screaming and yelling all this stuff. The points that he put forward were extremely reasonable in my opinion, especially about the economy which is my biggest thing.”

I do not support Trump. I support the Republican Party and what they stand for. I am not pro-racism and deportation, I am pro-deportation of illegal immigrants and pro-diversity. It is also misunderstood what Trump believes about immigration. He is not for hate of diversity. He is appointing people of color to his cabinet and for the Supreme Court. “Although his stance on illegal immigrants was fine, he was very forward with his opinion,” Leonard said. “He’s not going to hide what his opinion is and people aren’t used to that.”

I feel bad that there is so much fear among millions of people, but a voting conservative might tell you it is not his intent to inflict fear upon people. It’s time for people to respect the conservatives for voting for Trump, and to understand why they did what they did.

Even on social media I feel personally attacked, afraid to express my opinions to my friends with opposite views. “I’m all about tolerance but if you voted/support Trumpet I can’t be around you. This isn’t about politics, this is about morals, ” Tara Djukanovic ’17 said on her Twitter. She later changed her opinion. I looked through who favorited it and was frightened by the amount of my friends who favorited it. Because of my political opinion, I was afraid I was going to lose friendships I valued.

I should not be afraid to be writing this opinion, but I am. I am afraid of standing firm and voicing my beliefs, and I think that is wrong. I am afraid of being attacked upon, but I feel that we all just need to take a deep breath and move on. Everything will be okay. I will not attack you for your liberal views, so please don’t attack me for my conservative ones.