I have only existed in this world for a sparse 22 years and can only personally remember about three elections, excluding this one, obviously.  According to the many talking heads that blather on and on about this election cycle, this is the first time in history that both major candidates for presidency were this majorly disliked.  I don’t know how much truth is behind that statement (since our record keeping hasn’t been the best these past 240 years), but I do know that the polarization of this cycle is very palpable; so thick almost everyone is choking.

So in such a strongly divided election, it seems improbable that this cycle would push anyone closer together.  Polls have been showing that an increasingly proportional amount of people are becoming fed up with the two-major-party system (despite there being 16 names up on the presidential ballot this year, we all know it’s a contest between the Republican candidate and Democratic candidate).  

But it is exactly that tiredness and disgust towards our current system that may be pushing the right people together.

My grandmother and I do not agree on much, politically or otherwise.  We disagree on flavors we like, my style choices, her music choices, how I should spend my time, and pretty much any opinion I hold on anything ever.  There is not a whole lot of cohesion when it comes to these subjects.  But strangely enough, the one subject that usually everyone and their mother will disagree with (politics obviously) actually brought, to some degree, my grandmother and I closer together.

Our mutual disgust, distrust, and disgruntlement towards our presidential options was actually a point of agreement.  Neither of us argued or thought to convince the other one way or another.  In fact, the conversation we had was pleasant and informative.  We had a small discussion about a few of the ballot issues we felt like voting for (she decided that since there were no true options for president that she felt comfortable voting for to not vote for a president, but instead vote on the ballot issues).

We both left the political discourse with feelings that are relatively alien to political discourse: satisfaction, a small amount of joy, and a relative sense of having a valuable conversation.

This was so new and revitalizing to me that it actually made me more excited to get involved in the political process and to learn about the issues.

Ultimately, it was important that we both took away something valuable and positive from the experience.  That something was the sense that we grew closer.  And in the end, that trumps about everything else I’ve experienced over the course of this nightmare ride we call an election cycle.