On March 6, 2016, Donald J. Trump doubled down on his proposed “total and complete” Muslim ban by stating that there is an inherent “tremendous hatred” of the United States in the Islamic religion.

Then, on Oct. 7, 2016, a tape was released of Trump explaining how his stardom gives him permission to do anything that he wants to women, including grabbing their privates because “they just let you do it. You can do anything.”

And most recently, on Jan. 12, 2018, Trump, in an effort to convince lawmakers to be more stringent on immigration, dismissed Haiti and some African countries as “s**thole countries.”

And this all just seems like the tip of the iceberg of offensive and controversial things that President Trump has said and done since announcing his bid for the 2016 presidency.

So surely anybody who could support a man who has said such ignorant, hateful things about immigrants, people of color and women must be just as ignorant and hateful as he is, right?

Well, no. Hostility is not the answer here.

Hear me out.

The end goal of what we’re all trying to do here is make the country a better place. Whether you’re a liberal, a conservative, a snowflake, a Trump supporter, a libertarian, etc., we all want the same thing. And it’s counterproductive and divisive to think any other way about your opponents on the political spectrum. You and Trump supporters and snowflakes all want this country to be better than what it is now.

Which takes me to my next, and probably most important, point: perpetuating hate towards Trump supporters is just as bad as fear mongering. I repeat: perpetuating hatred towards Trump supporters is just as bad as fear mongering.

I understand it seems easy to just write off every Donald Trump voter as an uneducated, gun-loving white supremacist, and any person who could support such a pro-establishment (insert your own adjectives and/or insults here) man wouldn’t understand the kind of America that the rest of us sane moral people are trying to build.

But the thing is, 45 million people voted for the guy, most of whom do not fit the uneducated white supremacist stereotype that I described. Many of these voters are struggling working-class citizens just trying to make ends meet, according to an article in the Washington Post on demographics of Donald Trump voters.

Voters who hoped that this brash “politician” would keep his word and work to help them out when they’ve felt like every other lying politician until now has just let them down.

And in that way, they too just want this country to be better than what it is now, like the rest of us.

So we can’t dismiss or hate Donald Trump voters. It’s counterproductive to everything that making the country better is all about. And if you’re just exuding all of the resentment and hostility that you feel back out at your political opposition, what are you really doing?

Because your anger and hatred of a man and his base isn’t getting Flint, Michigan clean water any sooner. Your hate and anger aren’t going to help sick poor people suddenly afford their extravagant medical bills. And your hate and anger aren’t making public schools any safer for our children.

The point I’m making here is that we should turn away from any kind of anger and frustration against our political opposition and towards an end bigger than any one of us, to make the country that our children and grandchildren grow up in better than the one that we did.

Things have to change, and it all starts with what you want to put into the world. Cooperation or divisiveness? Hope or fear? Love or hate?