We learned a lot during the 2016 election and none of it was pretty...

Rightwing America is either unwilling or unable to comprehend the fact that the 2016 election was unlike any other election in the nation's history. This isn't a matter of "getting over it" or being—as so many conservatives have accused us of—"sore losers". This is a matter of survival for many of us... and freedom for all of us. If anything has come of this PTSD-inducing nightmare, it's the realization that this country must divide into two republics to avoid a second Civil War.

Friendships, family ties, and marriages have been irrevocably strained—many severed altogether—as a result of the volatile hatred and division Donald Trump awoke in this country. Hate crimes against minorities have gone UP, not down, since the election. Schools and students have been profoundly and negatively impacted. The end result is this: we don't believe there can ever be unity.

The United States is not One Nation Under God and it probably never was.

Ever since legalized slavery was abolished, white heterosexual Christians have gone out of their way to demean, demoralize, humiliate, and control people who don't look, think, behave, or pray as they do. They have gone to hideous lengths to remain in power, including rigging congressional districts to their advantage and blocking the will of the majority via the electoral college twice in 16 short years. This is not the sort of tyranny any American should be yoked under. Disenfranchised people have fought and died for the very freedoms that stand to be lost under a Trump presidency. Equally frightening is the reality that we have no true democracy left to us now that Republicans control all three branches of government. In one undemocratic election, the system of checks and balances was obliterated. 

Black, brown, homosexual, Muslim, transgender, and even white heterosexual Christians who disagree with oppression have spent this election season being mocked, demonized, lied about, and told to go back to countries none of us came from. Immigrants seeking a better life and refugees fleeing persecution have been told in no uncertain terms they are not wanted. We watched through heartbroken eyes as the presidents of our hearts, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were witch-hunted, mocked, disrespected, disparaged, slandered, and even lynched in effigy. We do not desire to "fit in" with such a people. 

We are tired of being scapegoated; We demand a republic of our own.

It is past time for the US government to do right by ALL its people and establish a liberal, secular republic that is independent from the religious, financial, and populist whims of conservatives. Rather than trying to force a relationship that does not and will never work, or—God forbid—waiting for a second Civil War to determine our destiny, the Left and the Right should peacefully divide so that all of us can have the freedom and pursuit of happiness that is supposed to be our birthright. 

Left Republic