Everyone is familiar with the classic high school cliques, such as the preps, the punks, the jocks, the nerds and many others. There are popular kids and unpopular kids.

It’s a funny thing, but we never grow out of this trait. As adults, people still have a crazy need to categorize each other into groups.

This scenario goes way back in history. There were always separate tribes in civilization, often battling each other over their territory or their beliefs.

Nowadays, we have these battles just as before, but in different forms, including battles that involve money, promises, speeches, ads and big titles. There are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. There are liberals, moderates and conservatives.

Many voters already know whose side they are on. The Independents tend to be equivalent to the less popular kids in school. They are brave enough to try for it, but it will take a miracle for them to win, or in many cases to even have their existence acknowledged.

The big fishes, the Democrats and the Republicans, usually have a larger following and better publicity. Although these two party’s are not necessarily wiser, stronger, or better-looking than the Independents, they are the big parties, so the supporters will come.

When it comes to the presidential election, the two major political parties are constantly trying to keep each other out of power because each would prefer to have the power for themselves. Both parties are telling the public that their candidates are better and that their party needs to be in charge.

The supporters of the parties will defend and praise their candidates, proudly sporting bumper stickers, banners, flags and donkeys or elephants.

Many voters are so into their mascots and colors that after they know the name of their parties candidate, they don’t need any more convincing before they go to turn in their ballots. They will vote for their party based on these superficial things with few or no questions asked.

Voters may believe that the person representing their party supports every aspect that the donkey or elephant stands for; otherwise, that person wouldn’t be running under that party. But when you look at a human being, none of us can fit into a category perfectly.

Just because a candidate belongs to a specific party, it does not always mean that he has the same morals and the same beliefs as another person from the same party. So why categorize the candidates?

They could simply all be individuals. If we all took a good look at each other’s beliefs, maybe we’d recognize that the categories are not what matters.

We should avoid being just another elephant or donkey, jock or prep. We should pay attention to what the candidates really have to say and vote for which one we think will make the better president, no matter what their party affiliation.

We all think differently and have the freedom and intelligence to make our own decisions. This is part of what makes us who we are today.

The best way we can make this decision for ourselves would be to listen to what the candidates are really saying and forget about the parties. We owe it to ourselves to make an educated decision.