We Can Disagree About Politics but Not Human Decency

If you support Donald Trump, what else are you supporting?

Protestors walk along Court Street to the county services building in downtown Reading, PA on November 6, 2020 where people marched and protested in opposition to the possibility that some of the votes from the election would not be counted. Photo: Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images

Elections are supposed to be an opportunity to vote for your political beliefs. They are a partisan battle to turn states blue or red. A right-side versus left-side standoff. But let’s not kid ourselves by saying that this is the case for the 2020 presidential election.

This time around, this isn’t a fight between the two major political parties. You’re not voting on a Democratic or Republican leader. You’re voting on whether or not you want the president of the United States to have basic human decency.

We can agree to disagree. That’s the beautiful thing about our world. We have the right to have our own political beliefs, our own priorities, our own personal opinions. Part of a free country is being free to express your uniqueness. We can disagree politically. We can be friends and have different political beliefs. I truly wholeheartedly believe that.

But we can’t disagree with what human decency means.

If you are going to support the oppression and disrespect of human beings, then we cannot be friends.

Don’t get me wrong: You are free to have your own political beliefs. But we need to separate political beliefs from human decency. We can disagree on policies. You can be liberal or conservative. I may not agree with you, but I will respect it. Everyone is raised a certain way and prioritized some things more than others. We can disagree with where money should be put into the economy. We can disagree on policies and the environment. However, freedom of speech is also accompanied by the responsibility of not harming or hurting others.

But this election is about more than political beliefs. I think a lot of people have forgotten that. Or even worse, they know and they just don’t care. On social media, there has been an ongoing trend of people posting “We can disagree and still be friends.” If you are going to support the oppression and disrespect of human beings, then we cannot be friends.

When I look at the numbers for the 2020 presidential election, I don’t see half of the U.S. population…