They’re not going anywhere.

No one is really going to leave the country, whether they promised to leave, or if we say if you don’t like it, leave.

No matter who wins the presidency, people haven’t changed their minds about their choice.

About half of the country will be ecstatic with the election result. About half of the country will be angry, sad and disappointed with the election result.

A candidate may disappear after an election but the candidate’s supporters do not.

The folks whose candidate loses aren’t going away. Their beliefs will not change just because the other side won.

The people whose candidate loses will not disappear. They are still here. Whether here is across town or across the family dinner table, we still must live with each other.

The “other” side is us and we are “them.”

We’ve forgotten that somewhere along the way.

The other side is just as American as you or me. We simply disagree on what being an American means. 

That is a debate as old as the nation. A difference of opinion as widespread as the breadth of the United States. A debate as near as our families.

In recent years, we have become more volatile in that disagreement. We have drawn lines. We have crossed lines. 

We have not only taken to calling each other names. We believe what we say. We believe our fellow Americans, our neighbors, our one-time friends, and our family members aren’t just wrong or misguided.

No, we believe they are evil, vile, reprehensible, less than human. Even though we see them every day. 

But do we really see them? Do we really consider who the other side is?

We see the other side in the smile of the waitress waiting on our table, the person who stops to help us change a tire, the people raising money for a good cause, the neighbor who brings food when we’re sick, the business owner who sells your favorite items, the guy who waves from his porch, the woman who slows her car so you may continue walking through the parking lot, the guy who holds a door for you, the stranger who reaches an item for you from a top shelf, the boy who stops to pick up the item you dropped, the neighbor’s voice you hear singing softly on the other side of the fence, the fast-food worker who puts extra napkins and sauces in the bag, the guy who tipped you delivering food, the neighbor who helped you find your lost dog, the person in the shopping line with a full cart who lets you go first when you have only one or two items, the woman who holds the elevator door as you rush to make it, the driver who stops to help during a traffic accident …

Yep, there are folks like that on both sides of the political divide. Their lives make our lives better everyday.

If you think the country would be better if the other side disappeared, just imagine how empty our lives would be if all of those folks were gone. 

Dean Poling is an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times.