The election can finally be considered settled, even for the vehemently persistent activists associated with the Coalition Against Election Fraud who camped out in John Kerry’s front yard from December 28 until January 5 refusing to give up; the Inauguration is on Thursday and even if you’re not happy with the results you’ve come to accept that George W. Bush is our president for another four years. Right? Good! So have I. Well, maybe that’s because I had a vested interest in the whole affair since I was just one of many people who put a great deal of work into making sure Laura Bush will be decorating the East Wing for “Four More Years!” On the eve of our next term with the man with the Texas swagger, I thought I’d provide some insight into the dynamics of the past four years and what we can do to make the next four years more successful, as citizens.

I feel as American citizens one of the most important obligations we hold ourselves and our peers to is to be informed. The issue of utmost chagrin to me — and that has the potential to disrupt the “uniting” of this country, is that there is a segment of the population that really doesn’t know what they believe, but is just anti-Bush and refuses to budge. They can’t tell you why they don’t like Dubya, but at the same time they’ll tell you he’s a divider, not a uniter. They take absolutely no responsibility for their part in helping the President unite this so-called “divided” country. How can it be that some of us can develop such strong feelings against someone or something, when we don’t even know what we really stand for? The extremist beliefs we face on college campuses are a reflection of a following for those that are the most vocal in opposition — a fad, if you will, since collegiate extremists on the left often end up becoming conservative after experiencing real life.

I feel that if there is a division in our great nation it is not really perpetuated by our President, the way many of his critics claim. Instead, it is as much the responsibility of the citizens to help promote the unification of our society by making concessions — or simply tossing aside, or even just altering their own political agendas if unification is what they truly desire.

I am forced to pose the following questions: Is it even necessary, or possible to unite the country, and if it is, whose job is it? Surely it can’t be solely the President’s job to bring together people who have different views, agendas, and ideas for the country. Yet it appears that people expect that of him. In reality, the entire argument of the “divisive” Bush presidency is a pretense for those who are upset they lost and expect the President to come over to their side of the aisle and adopt their policies.

If the President, in an effort to cater to the other side, “reached across the aisle” and abandoned the policies for which he was elected, would he not be a traitor to those who trust him to follow through on the policies they wish to see implemented? If the country had wanted the policies on the other side of the aisle, we would have elected the candidate who supported those policies, which we didn’t.

Which brings me to concessions in the game of politics. It’s all just a game. The game of politics. So why do so many of us take it so seriously? It took me until this year to realize that I could hear and understand other points of view and still maintain my own beliefs, without being a traitor to my party or myself.

I will be the first to give credit to, and I will never argue with someone who has strongly held beliefs that are well founded. I will also admit from firsthand experience that it isn’t easy trying to see the other side, or altering the way you see things. But on the eve of four more years, for those of you who are having a little bit of trouble dealing with the idea — even if you don’t do it for the President, or for the sake of unity, do it for yourselves. You’ll find that true political maturity is attained when you can understand and appreciate other peoples’ points of view, no matter how drastically they disagree with your own.

The President, although given the responsibility of unifying the country by public standard, isn’t alone; each one of us has a part, even if the idea of being one big happy country isn’t all that important. If I can watch Jon Stewart and laugh at his jokes about the administration, everyone can give a little!