Recently I watched a video on YouTube depicting The Simpon's discussing which candidate they were voting for. Of course, the video was filled with puns and jokes about both presidential candidates. I didn't think much about it, since I had already seen just about every piece of propaganda on our news outlets, and at this point, I was tired of the same two sides battling.

What really made me saddened were the comments below. Grown men and women brought up in a society that taught them there were only two factions to join were arguing their points. It went a little something like this:

"Trump is just a piece of (your choice word)."
  "Well, Hillary killed a bunch of people."
"You're so misinformed. All of you redneck (your choice word) need to be educated."

And that was the mild version of the things I read. If I hadn't already seen incidents like these, I would have probably crawled into a ball of shame and cried.

The sad truth is that both sides are ignorantly following the herd like a lost sheep. In society, we speak of this so-called magical scale called the "political spectrum," in which we base our entire life on one ideology. I've seen best friends never speak to each other again. I've seen parents fight with their children. I've witnessed teachers push their ideas onto their pupils. And I've even seen hate and bitterness between complete strangers.

Frankly, this is all just a joke to people who have questioned what the truth is. For instance, last night, I was attending a cookout with friends and family.

"You mean you haven't been registered? You have to vote," said one friend to another.

"It's your duty as a citizen of America," said someone else.

It made me sick to my stomach; I almost spit out my watermelon. It sounded like a chapter out of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. You have to pick a faction, you mean? You have to decide who your friends are, and who you'll associate with for the rest of your life based on entirely one vote? You mean you have to give up the freedom of living with common sense? You mean you have to choose between two illogical parties?

I've stopped watching the media for about six months now. And since then, I've stopped having to compromise for what I believe in. My motto in life is that moderation is key. Is it ethical to think that there are only two solutions to a problem? Is it even possible to believe that each and every one of us is either born a Republican or a Democrat? To my knowledge, I've never been either. And I intend to keep it that way.
Each of us have our own ideology; our own unique shade on the color wheel, if you will. So does it make sense that we are each only a blue or a red?

I surely hope not.

Because just between me and you, my favorite color is periwinkle purple.