Patriots (AKA America-Loving Americans) Are Not Your Enemy

My fellow Americans,

Approximately 70 million of you will be extremely appalled and disappointed over the next few days, and likely for long afterwards. If you are one of those people, this message is particularly meant to reach you, but it is applicable to all Americans. Hopefully these reminders help you and all of us get through this, stronger on the other side.

• The people who voted for your disfavored candidate (or didn't vote at all) are not necessarily bad people. Perhaps some very small percentage of them espouse some deeply immoral and undemocratic ideals, but the vast majority love this country and simply have a different set of ideas of what/who they believe will make it better on net, relative to the other candidate, in this binary choice foisted upon us. Now that the race is over, the pressure valve released without a zero-sum election ahead, find somebody you love and trust to be good in their heart who voted differently from you, and try to understand their various motivations and rationales. See that they are likely not that different from you.
• It's almost certain that this result will not lead to the end of democracy. That's not to say there aren't real risks that might further erode our democracy which we must remain vigilant to mitigate, and we may see escalations of political violence and unrest, but our institutions are likely to hold. Let's try not to catastrophize where it's not necessary or beneficial, as that makes it harder to identify and address the real threats we face.
• The work to effect the changes you want to see in the world does not end after Election Day. In a way, that's when the real work begins. There are many ways to drive the change you want, some harder and more effective, some easier and less effective, and importantly, some are easy, perhaps even fun, but counter-productive. Whatever you do, avoid that last one! Peaceful protests are good. Riots and looting and incitement to violence are bad. They hurt your cause and hurt the democracy you claim to be trying to protect. Beware those that pretend to be your allies but are hurting your movement, mostly unintentionally, though likely influenced by those that very much want to see our country weakened. Stick to legal and democratic methods of advocacy.
• Even if you think the winning candidate/party is bad, remember that bad people can have good ideas or do good things. Don't see everything they say/do as bad, and when they do something that is good for you and/or the country, celebrate it (at least quietly), don't denounce it. While not giving them any credit for positive achievements may help your side win the next election, it comes at the expense of politicizing and dividing the country on every issue, rendering it impossible to unite on any progress that makes our nation collectively more successful, and making everyone feel that things are only getting worse. There are plenty of issues where we can have honest differences of opinion to fight for and campaign on - it does not have to be every issue with no room for compromise.
• Until we break the stranglehold that the political duopoly has over us, where our leaders are often incentivized to represent just their most extreme partisan primary voters, things will continue to get worse. We only need a handful of moderates unshackled from our gerrymandered, partisan primary plurality voting system to see both parties have to moderate and compromise. It is entirely within reach to pass Open Primary and Ranked Choice Voting reforms in a few more states, and we need to do all we can to advocate for this. We must fix the perverse incentives rather than just trying to address the havoc those incentives cause.?

Whatever happens the next few days, please try to remember the above, and channel your energy to lawfully get what you want out of our government and society, no matter who is in the White House. And to reiterate the first and most important point above, do not treat your fellow Americans as your enemies. Only by understanding each other will we have any chance of narrowing our differences and solving the many problems our country faces, and becoming once again a beacon of light to shine upon the world.