So, Nov. 8 is upon us. Sigh. You are probably asking yourself doomsday questions or ruminating over the calamities that await.

Before you do so, take a second. We all have the tendency to think that each election is the election and holds our fate in the balance. However, let us not forget how incredibly resilient our country is. One election and one terrible candidate will not destroy the country.

That being said, as the next generation it is up to us to define the next decade of politics.

Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton represent serious cracks in our political system. Trump is representative of the rage felt by many disenfranchised voters, the establishment and that vast group of people who detest Clinton enough to vote for a man so morally corrupt as Trump.

Does this motley crew seem a little paradoxical to you? After President Barack Obama’s disastrous eight years, people want real change. What they have is a distasteful Democrat who posed as a Republican long enough to win the primaries, hence the varied type of supporter within the Trump camp.

Clinton’s supporters are, however, much more unified. A combination of uninformed young voters, radical feminists, leftists and the mainstream media, these people only represent what we all dislike about the system. The constant coverup of Clinton’s obvious corruption by the media and the continuous stream of lies from the Clinton campaign all reek of the crony politician culture in Washington.

This election will redefine us all; conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, liberals and the like will all be forced to take a hard look at what each label represents after this election. This election cycle is especially defining to our generation, since the terms we grew up with now may not mean the same thing.

I am sure we have all seen our parents, older siblings and older members of the family talk about the election cycle. It seems like more and more of us are being sucked into the identity politics of today. I see myself and my peers growing up in a society where we define each other by political, sexual and racial labels. No politician cares what you think about an issue, all they care about is what group you fall in and how that group usually votes.

It comes as no surprise then, that new movements like the alt-right and a resurgence in socialism pop up. For most, the desire to “burn it all down” is leaving a vacuum for new groups to be created.

This election cycle has had the worst representation when it comes to the millennial vote. Studies show that 23 percent of millennials prefer a giant meteor strike to either presidential candidate. Trump is polling devastatingly low numbers when it comes to young voters, and Clinton does not fare much better.

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders was the only presidential candidate who polled positive numbers when it came to the millennial vote. This may be due to the fact that 33 percent of young voters support socialism.

This information should scare you.

Although I do not agree with the general idea that this election will destroy our entire political system, I do think this is a defining moment for our nation. In the vacuum, what will we choose?

I propose that we choose ideas.

It is time for each person to think, actually think, about what they believe in, and why. It is not time to regress even further into the identity you chose this election. We can either divide this country into more groups: black vs white, foreigner vs native, socialist vs capitalist; or we can define people by their ideas, not by where they come from or what they look like.

But, on a lighter note, if we end up choosing socialism as our solution to these cracks, then this election may truly be the end of us.  

https://youtu.be/3nk9rm0WjWY