There’s no problem in stating this was a rough and tumble fight between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney for president. With attack ads on in battle states and emails spammed with endorsements from members of Congress and celebrities, it’s easy to finally say goodbye to this election.

No matter who wins this election, the fact of the matter is the election is over. However, this does come with a price of leading a country that has not been so divided since the Civil War.

Looking at the latest polls of which state might be going blue or red, it’s almost the same with the division at the Missouri Compromise.

It doesn’t help that each candidate has a different plan to run the country, but it’s not the main problem. The main problem is the fight between the Republicans and Democrats.

Helping to bridge the gap and divide us more are the opposite views of each party. A recent Pew research poll came out that compared the responses of declared Democrats and Republicans now and 25 years ago.

In the poll a question of who agree that the government should take care of people who can’t for themselves, 25 years ago 79 percent of democrats agreed and 62 percent of republicans agreed. Even though that seems like a big gap, the poll performed this year has a 35-point gap with Democrats at 75 percent and Republicans at a low 40 percent.

In the same Pew research poll, 25 years ago there was only an 11-point gap between Democrats and Republicans on who agreed government regulation on business does more harm than good. However, this year the gap jumped up to 35 points.

The bottom line is this makes it harder for anyone to agree on something for this country. With party lines drawn so far apart, it almost seems as if nothing is going to get done in Washington.

It’s also very tight in many other states where Obama or Romney are only one to three points ahead in the polls. So not only can politicians not agree, but the American people are divided as well.

So what does this all mean?

It means this country is going in the wrong direction. In the 2008 election, voting trends were different than in previous years. Obama won states usually won by Republicans. It was like those states – Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina and Virginia – wanted something else. They were willing to have a new direction for the country.

Obama also had about 10 million more votes than McCain, making it about a six-point difference in the polls. That may not seem like a lot, but if projections for this year stay true, it could only be a two-point difference between the candidates.

The other problem this creates is parties trying very hard to disagree with one another. It’s like the new thing to do is disagree with the other side so much that it’s a crime to even think about it.

It’s as though the stylish thing to do is to disagree with someone merely because he or she comes from the opposing political party. We have forgotten that this country was founded on being able to share ideas and think freely; our forefathers would be aghast at how intricately and heavily minor problems are legislated by our policymakers.

Think about the issues and – most importantly – think for yourself. The only thing worse than not having an opinion is having one handed to you.