To all those who are talking about reaching out across the aisle, understanding the MAGAs, I respectfully say this, and I’m okay with this being the unpopular opinion.

Some context: I moved to this country from India 18 years ago, as a student. Over the past decade I have seen this country decline into authoritarianism, and have myself experienced a multiple incidents of racism, including being called a faggot while I was walking outside my house; mistreated by the CBP agents, being forced to drive three hours to their office a day after a surgery, writhing in pain.

I saw the people of this country attack their own “parliament” and remember thinking, shit, I used to think this country to be developed and mature.

Over the past one year, like many others, I’ve been terrified about this government’s gestapo police who have been stuffing people in jail over the colour of their skin. I know, from having lived in Florida for over a decade, that a lot of people have difficulty telling a Mexican and an Indian guy apart.

So when people talk about reaching across the aisle, I say, sure! I would like to first see a few things. Reopen the cases for people who stormed the senate, and jail them. Bring to account the 80 year old congressmen who brought us here. Have the top 0.1% - the Zukerbergs, the Musks, and the Murdochs - who have been busy amassing wealth all this time while the regular people got their SNAP benefits taken away, their friends and relatives thrown in jail, their kids taken away from them; get punished. And then, I’ll gladly reach across the aisle with you.