Congratulations, America—you have succeeded in doing what normally takes two tests, three essays, a project and five days of school. You have exhausted me. I can’t go anywhere, can’t go more than a few hours, without hearing someone’s opinion on this political matter or that. “Four days until Bush leaves office!” I agree with Ronald Dworkin, philosopher and author of “Is Democracy Possible Here?” when he argues for a revamp of our ideas of political discourse. This nation hardly argues in a constructive sense anymore. I am tired of hearing pointless banter about how terrible a president Mr. Bush has been without any validation. I’m ready to agree with my grandmother when she says that, “Being President takes more than just common sense.” Perhaps Bush has some common sense. But the constant unfounded decrying of Bush doesn’t annoy me nearly as much as the lauding given to Mr. Obama. The next time I hear something about Obama’s presidency being a “victory” for the dark-skinned people, I’m going to scream. His merits do not lie in his race, and the results of the 2008 presidential election reflect the progressive opinions of a nation much more than the advancement of a civil rights movement. It may be true that Obama will do something amazing for our nation’s social rights, but his successful bid for president does not alone represent change. This babble is everywhere. It doesn’t matter where I am: math class, UnCommons, chemistry. I will hear something about some political issue that “hopefully Obama will fix.” As I purchased my books from the Andover Bookstore, I noticed a sticker celebrating Bush’s last days in office. A liberal bias seems to have infiltrated our lives so thoroughly that I’m expecting to find an algebra problem involving Obama’s first days in office on my next math quiz. Or perhaps I’ll have a chemistry problem asking the amount of CO2 Bush exerts while breathing in the Oval Office. In short, stop. Bush is out. Obama is in. On January 20, Chief Justice Roberts will swear-in our President. I offer you two constructive alternatives to this stupidity. You could quit arguing like second-graders who have just been asked which is the best color or which is the yummiest flavor of ice cream. Opt to sit and watch, and celebrate or lament on the twentieth. Or, you could partake in a constructive discourse. This is what Law and Morality is for. I’m not going to rehash that entire philosophy course, but one of the most important things I learned was the idea of discussion based upon common ideals. Though none of us realizes it, there exists a set of concrete ideals on which we all agree. That is, according to Dworkin, each human life is important and each person is responsible for ensuring his or her own freedoms. These are our “self-evident truths.” The idea is that these ideals can be re-interpreted, yielding the vast majority of the opinions that exist. Recognizing what we have in common ideologically will bring us closer to a more intelligent discourse. Bradly Kneisel is a two-year Lower from Toledo, Ohio. bkneisel@andover.edu
