In the window of my college dorm room was a “Ron Paul for President” sign facing out to the student courtyard of our little beachside campus in Saint Petersburg FL. As I have gotten older I have retained my libertarian views, but I have also accepted that if I want to participate in the direction of my country I have to have skin in the game. So, you may ask, who am I hoping takes this election? I’ll get to that.

To this day, I still believe our country is primarily libertarian. The majority of us are socially progressive and fiscally conservative. Forced to choose between our two party system, it often boils down to which one of those competing issues mean more to us. I believe that if you removed the politicians and people’s charged emotions towards them, there would be significant common ground. This country is not as divided as everyone keeps saying it is, but that is a less interesting and less dramatic view tossed out by most as idealist.

I am not expecting people to ever come to this realization and join together in a drum circle of peace and harmony, but I am saying that things are going to be ok. The news outlets, the people shouting that the country is coming to an end on both sides, the general feeling of chaos right now, is — in my opinion — more of a media fueled narrative generated by our collective imaginations than it is an accurate depiction of our reality and likely outcomes. Yes, it often materializes as violence and destructive acts of those who don’t have the vision and perspective to realize that the wool is being pulled over their eyes, but that is the vast minority of our population.

Seeing video of riots and rally’s over and over on TV gives you the sense that our nation is on the brink of implosion, but 99.9999% of us in this country are at work, at home, on the golf course or in the hospital, having beers with our friends or movie night with our families. Don’t be fooled by the magic trick.

If you need some perception balance, just look at the stats (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2014/11/24/7272929/global-poverty-health-crime-literacy-good-news). Believe it or not, throughout history, the world continues to improve in many significant ways.

With that in mind, with a shift in perspective that allows me to have faith deep down that everything is going to be ok, I still have an opinion about who I think is better for our country in this moment and it isn’t the one who is encouraging his base to storm election offices. It’s not the leader who is suing the states that serve his goals and claiming he is doing it for our nation. It isn’t the leader who is subverting the entire democratic system our country is based on. It isn’t the man who claimed victory before the votes have been counted.

It’s the sleepy, boring, old, uninspiring man who stood at the podium in the middle of the election and asked everyone to remain calm and stay patient.

That’s my opinion and I am comfortable with the idea that many intelligent and reasonable people will consider me naive or sheepish. I want to make it clear though, that I don’t feel like our country is doomed if Trump wins. At the end of the day, in the big picture of our nation and the human race as a whole, based on historical evidence, I am supremely confident that everything is going to be ok.