OPINION: Parties Must Come Together After Election

By Broadside Correspondent Lucas Nottingham

On November 4, the presidential election will be decided, and this country will have an opportunity to reunite. The past several months have been filled with some polarizing arguments, which have left a lot of people longing for unification of political parties in order to solve some of the problems in this country. Most of us can agree that both of the candidates in the presidential race have the country’s best interest in mind, otherwise they would have never made it through the tough scrutiny up to this point.

Hopefully, whoever gets elected as the next president will carry out the promises and commitments he has made. We need to stop aiming at each other, unify, and turn our attention to the problems afflicting this country, such as terrorism, the faltering economy, and needed reforms. Let’s come together after the election, no matter who is selected as the next president, put partisan bickering aside, and assume the roles of patriotic Americans.

Whoever is elected, be it Sen. Barack Obama, D–Ill., or Sen. John McCain, R–Ariz., deserves a fair shot at the tough job he will inherit, without prejudgment. Let the next president’s actions speak for him and it will become apparent whether he is doing a good job or not.

The very foundation of this country is the cooperation of individuals from many different backgrounds, all working for the common good. This is illustrated by the de facto motto of the United States of America—E Pluribus Unum; from many, one. We can recover from the polarization, and we must realize that political stances are just opinions, not clear cut right or wrong answers.

This is the reason why political discussions incite so much fury and emotion—some see political thought as right versus wrong. There is no right answer, and there is no wrong answer, especially when it comes down to sharing opinions on a particular subject. Let’s be reasonable. Can someone else tell you what your opinion is? No. Your opinion is what you think. Certainly, they can make judgments on or evaluations of your opinion, but in a discussion of shared opinions, harsh evaluations on those opinions can become unproductive and provoke unnecessary emotional response.

Some of the rhetoric of this campaign season has contained these types of harsh judgments of opinions, which are, frankly, unproductive. We have seen this in the assertions of some Democrats that McCain is the same as the current president. Some Republicans have also engaged in this rhetoric with their suggestions that Obama’s policies are Marxist. The actual policies which triggered the judgmental statements have been put in the background, and the harsh personal attacks are fore grounded. This is not a productive mode of discussion; it is the same as name-calling on a schoolyard playground. Instead of this, we should be focusing on real opinions and policy suggestions.

If we can stick to content over name-calling, we may find that the discussion becomes much more civil, and we can come to a better understanding of how and what those involved think. Isn’t this the primary reason to engage in discussions with one another?

There have been many great Americans from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Some examples that readily come to mind are Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. Regardless of who is elected, we should all ask ourselves at this point what is most important. It certainly isn’t a personal victory in an election, but rather our country’s progress. The next great president in U.S. history could come from either the Democratic or Republican party.

But, of course these parties, these political categories, have pervious boundaries, and we should not limit our thought, or our perceptions of others based upon any political affiliation. We all fall into the category of Americans.

Let us act the role as we have done in the past, before polarizing and dubious accusations and complaints about each other. Let’s show the world what level of cooperation we are capable of. Let us unite behind our next president and give him the opportunity to make this country the best it can be. First and foremost, we are Americans. United we stand, divided we fall.