If you spend any considerable amount of time on social media, you probably noticed that the election's become a bit of a hot topic.
Whether you're a Democrat deciding between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton or a Republican trying to make sense of Trump-mania, you've probably seen people get a bit, um, intense in support of their candidate of choice.
But on Sunday afternoon, there was a wonderful moment of unity between two of the candidates.
See, it started when Bernie Sanders tweeted this:
What was Sanders talking about? Well, just a few hours before, terrifying GOP frontrunner Donald Trump was on CNN.
Being interviewed by Jake Tapper, Trump was asked about a quote from former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, who said, "Voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage."
There's a very easy response to this question. Donald Trump did not go that route. Instead...
Now, it should be noted that when being interviewed about running for president back in 2000, Trump called David Duke "a bigot, a racist, a problem." So, maybe he forgot who Duke is?
The truly bizarre part of the interview, though, was when Trump was asked to condemn the KKK itself, and he continued to hedge, choosing not to condemn the white supremacist organization.
So that's how we got to Bernie Sanders's tweet about "a hatemonger who refuses to condemn the KKK."
That's when Hillary Clinton did something unexpected: She retweeted Bernie Sanders.
It shouldn't be any surprise that the Clinton campaign agreed with the sentiment of Sanders' tweet. (After all, it seemed like people from both parties were stunned that Trump wouldn't automatically denounce the freakin' KKK of all organizations.)
But it is surprising that her account retweeted it, of all things.
Image from Twitter.
Now, as people always say, retweets don't equal endorsements, but this one is pretty clear. Whether the democratic nominee is Clinton or Sanders, this bodes well for the party's ability to cooperate after the nomination, right? You'd think. You'd hope.
Because if there's one thing we should all be able to agree on, it's that the KKK isn't OK. Hopefully, even Donald Trump, in hindsight, will conclude the same thing.
So there it was sitting at the top of Clinton's Twitter feed, a tweet from her rival for the Democratic nomination. One could even say that Donald Trump, in all his divisiveness, helped unify the Clinton and Sanders campaign efforts. For that, Democrats should be thanking Trump.
It would have been easy for Hillary Clinton just to craft her own tweet, but she didn't.
This election cycle has been brutal. It's also been really polarizing, especially when it comes to the topic of racism and xenophobia. It's for that reason that something as small and subtle as a retweet can mean so much.
Remember the story about the 8-year-old Muslim girl who was scared Donald Trump was going to kick her out of the country? Or the daughter of a Mexican immigrant who pushed back on Trump's comments about people like her father being rapists, drug mules, and criminals?
By amplifying Sanders' tweet, the two candidates sent an even bigger message. Together.
Seeing the two Democratic candidates come together, not just for themselves or their campaigns, but for regular people like these two — who just want to live in a world where they aren't held to negative stereotypes based on the color of their skin or the religion they believe in — was powerful.
In an election season driven by candidates begging to be attacked so they get a chance to respond on the debate stage, it's nice to see rivals working together for humanity’s sake.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
