The Red and Black

Issue date: 8/20/08 Section: Opinions

ZACH NIKONOVICK-KAHN

As students trickle into Athens for the start of another year at the University, we are faced with many decisions. The first couple weeks of August are replete with decisions: how will we decorate dorm rooms? Which classes will we add and drop?

The decisions we make now about futons, fridges and frat parties are at the forefront of our minds, but it is the decision we make in November that will most affect our careers as students.

In November, we students ­­- many for the first time - will have the chance to vote in a presidential election.

As the spring semester drew to a close, conversations about political preferences were heard more frequently in dorms, dining halls and classrooms. The more vocal of us could be heard heatedly debating the most salient issues of this election in various student groups around campus.

While there was absolutely no dearth of the traditional liberal versus conservative political conversation, the political discourse on our campus took a more non-traditional turn.

Fueled by the wildly exciting Democratic primary season, liberal students were pitted against each other. Instead of engaging in lively conversation with people on the other side of the aisle, Democratic students attacked each other on a divisive issue - which boundary-breaking candidate would be the better savior for mending our ravaged country?

The Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama debate unfortunately may continue to whirl out of proportion with the upcoming convention in Denver.

As the interest in our political future gains a palpable presence on campus this fall, many liberal students will continue to spar over a dead issue. Instead of continuing divisive discussion, these students should spend their energies on rallying behind the presumptive nominee.

I, once a fanatic Clintonista, have come to terms with the present. Likewise, I encourage other Hillaryites to shelve their grievances and devote themselves to furthering the causes of the Obama campaign.

While the Clinton-Obama divide is still a raw wound, we must realize we ultimately are united by an over-arching ideology: Democrats realize that a John McCain presidency is a recipe for disaster. McCain would only darken the ugly stain the Bush Administration will leave on the history of our country.

Instead of continuing our treacherous and self-destructing screeches, we liberal students need to help engender one strong, unified voice of the left. We need to collect the cry of the mother who is forced to choose between paying for gas or paying for health insurance, the plea of the soon-to-be fired factory worker, and the jarring howl of the family who has been evicted from its home into one solid voice for change and relief. Most importantly, we need this voice to be heard come November. The future of our country depends upon it.

- Zach Nikonovich-Kahn is a junior from Atlanta majoring in history.

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