Dear liberals, Clinton supporters, protesters, rioters and everyone who is unnaturally angry about the election result,

I’m happy that Trump won — because it’s your fault. Maybe, with this scarring loss, you might change.

I will admit, I’m somewhat looking forward to playing “Good Trump” (picking Reince Preibus as chief of staff)/”Bad Trump” (picking Steve Bannon as chief strategist) for the next four years.

How can this man’s ascension be the fault of liberals? Shouldn’t the blame fall on conservatives?

I’m going to tell you what I’ve seen from your side for a long time. This reaction has been a long time coming. You can’t create a thinking bubble about anything for, maybe, 20 years and not receive some kind of backlash from those who are tired of the order of things: deciding what can and can’t be said, controlling what you can think about and claiming to hate bullies yet behaving like one to those who don’t conform to their set of beliefs.

This is not meant to label everyone on the left. I know many wonderful people on the left with whom I thoroughly enjoy talking about politics.

There are those, however, who are impossible to talk to, especially when a group mentality comes into play. I’m talking to the same type of liberals who called upon Student Government Association Vice President Rohini Sethi to step down because her views didn’t line up with theirs.

This isn’t about Hillary Clinton at all. She has her own set of problems and is, legitimately, a terrible politician. This is about the electorate of the liberals who are on the ground, whom people interact with every day.

I did not support Trump in any way. I, as a Republican, conservative and libertarian, did not think that Trump was or is a conservative. He was the opposite of what former President Ronald Reagan (whom a cult of personality, an infallibility in the eyes of supporters, has been created behind) wanted.

Government is the solution to the problem in Trump’s eyes.

Still, I’m so glad that Trump beat Clinton because for the past 20 years, the left has moved to outright social authoritarianism. Many on the left have made it socially unacceptable to be a Republican, to hold conservative beliefs.

If you believe anything different from the left, you are “homophobic” or something else. Even if it is true for some, generalizing a whole section of the population only emboldens that section i.e. the alt-right. As Alana Conner, executive director of Stanford University’s Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions Center, said, “Telling people they’re racist, sexist, and xenophobic is going to get you exactly nowhere.”

Calling half the country terrible names based on their ideology is not going to work. Whenever someone generalizes a minority group, everyone angry and rightfully condemns that person.

Then you go out and generalize. Then you have become what you hate.

Yes, there were Trump supporters who were racist. I’m not denying that there are some clearly terrible people supporting Trump. Most of Trump’s supporters are good, hardworking people who truly thought he’d be a better president than Clinton.

There are people who think that Obama has been a terrible president based on his policies. Race has nothing to do with it.

It is extremely difficult to have a conversation with someone on the left as, often, it devolves into a labeling match. It is no longer fun to discuss politics with most people on the left since you are labeled as morally inferior for espousing conservative principles.

You are labeled, and that turns many people off.

Here’s my point: Your reaction to Trump’s victory, your verbal treatment of Trump supporters, your reaction to those who hold conservative values created Trump. These years of calling Republicans racist, sexist and every other name under the sun helped Trump to win.

In 2012, the left made it a point to call Mitt Romney these names, even though there was no realistic implication Romney was any of these things. It becomes tiresome. This amassed generalization is annoying even for those who didn’t support Trump.

This is not to say that there are not actual racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes and more. Call them out instead rather than generalize everybody on the right into the hateful category. Make a point of pulling them into the light because they are a problem.

Whenever Trump said something legitimately terrible, the left had already cried wolf too many times. It fell on deaf ears — no one reacted because they were so used to that dialogue.

I really hope you can think about changing what you’re doing as this dialogue has created a Trump presidency. I want both sides to tolerate each other again. If you really want progress and the betterment of America, start by listening to the other side and reaching out.

Stop calling everyone who disagrees with you with some “-ist” or “-phobic” term. Stop believing you are morally superior because you believe in a progressive ideology. Instead of helping you, it only serves to destroy you more. Identity politics does that.

You caused Trump, but you can fix it. I pray that you do, but given recent history, I don’t think you will. And that is a terrible thing for our republic.

Opinion columnist Jorden Smith is a political science junior and president of the College Republicans. He can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

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“Trump’s election should be a message to liberals” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar