Constitution Day panel proves popular

By Abby Cowels
Staff Writer

The Constitution Day discussion panel at LCC on Tuesday, Sept. 17 drew a huge turnout. It started with about six people, but minutes before starting there were more than 15 in the room, not including the AV Club.

Political Science Professor Dr. Michael Giles was moderating the event. Invitees Abby Gaskill and Keshava Demerath-Shanti were with Giles; both are political science majors.

There also was a guest speaker because one of the scheduled speakers was unable to attend. So instead, political science student Conner Collins stepped in to take that place.

He was bold and quite opinionated in his beliefs and shared what he called, “A more controversial opinion.” Collins has some viewpoints that fall on the more conservative side of the spectrum.
“Let’s face it,” Collins said. “This would be a boring conversation without me.”

An anonymous student expressed how impressed they were in the turnout. They agreed with Collins’ statement, however not necessarily aligning with his political beliefs.

“It was a great balance, it made the discourse interesting,” the student said. “I wish it went on about 30 minutes longer. I wanted to hear more about their individual politics.”

The hour-long panel was simply not enough time to discuss the complexities that are naturally a part of political discourse. Though it was plenty to brush over the topic at hand, “Why does the Constitution still matter?”

Another question brought up was, “How do we use it more effectively?”

The discussion kept coming to a single solution: compromise. Americans must find a way to start chipping away at the political polarization our country lives in, or nothing will get done.

“Polarization means that everyone is kind of … clustered around opposite viewpoints,” said Dr. Michael Giles, an LCC political science professor.

“To the point they are so far apart, they cannot communicate. The reason that we have polarization, within our society has many sides. But certainly, the clearest one today is the divide economically.”

The two-party system is made under the intention that it would serve a wider audience, Giles said.

“So, the two parties could come together on a compromise for the greater good,” Giles continued. “But with such a great political divide, … the compromise then becomes kind of a political sin against people of your own, because now you’re compromising with the people who you believe are so radically against you.”