The Obama Administration: a time of change, a new era of bi-partisanship, getting together and feeling all right…

Not quite.

We have a new president who campaigned on changing the way Washington works. He follows a president who never once considered the opinion of the opposition and yet, almost three months into his presidency, what has happened? Bitter political fights over the stimulus deal, budget, and CEO bonuses. Then there have been people like Michelle Bachmann— who only a few months ago called for an investigation of Congress to see who loves America and who hates it—calling herself a “foreign correspondent, reporting from enemy lines,” talking about Obama’s intent to start “re-education camps for young people,” and calling for an “orderly revolution” against the “tyranny” Obama is inflicting upon the American people.

Granted, Bachmann is considered pretty far out there, even by Republicans. Yet we still hear arguments like these coming from other right-wing ideologues like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. They call Obama a Communist or a Socialist (Beck recently realized he was wrong about calling Obama a Socialist—he’s actually a Fascist). Limbaugh wants Obama to fail, while Hannity warns listeners about the daily danger we all face if universal health care and taxes on the wealthiest of the wealthy are raised…Oy.

Now here I am, a liberal, ranting against conservatives—what’s new? I get pretty riled up just thinking about what these people say, and I think, who in God’s name watches this stuff without their minds turning to mush? Then I remember: there are plenty of people on the left who are just as ignorant as Beck and Hannity. Left or right, anybody is capable of holding far-fetched ideas. That is how our country works: we may swing from one side to the other, but moving too far in either direction can have bad consequences. The middle is where America is healthiest.

Why? Because no matter how much we try, there has been, is, and forever will be, disagreement between people. The only way we advance as human beings is by having others point out the error of our ways. Are we completely incapable, though, of sitting down with people whose views we can’t understand and having a substantive discussion without hurling insults?

I honestly don’t think we are. I’m as guilty as anyone else of jumping to conclusions and yelling at the TV or radio whenever there is a conservative on. But as long as we stay in our little bubbles, only listening to people with whom we agree, we can never learn the opinions of those on the other side of the political spectrum. There needs to be more personal, face-to-face interaction between people who have strong disagreements, because when we see that our “enemies” are just as human as we are, we may understand their viewpoints better rather than vilifying them.

Conservatives have O’Reilly, Hannity, and Kristol; Liberals have Olbermann, Maddow, and Krugman. Of course, these are people in the media, and they need to inject more drama than may be necessary into our public debates. As college students, we should go beyond our comfort zones and interact more with those with whom we may disagree strongly. It may be more fun to get riled up and insult them, but it would be more productive to sit down, talk, and see what we can agree on. Let’s all enjoy our primetime talking heads, just don’t let them talk for you.