The entirety of my Spring Break was filled with quite a raucous homecoming, having returned to my hometown, which, due to recent hostility toward my own political stances, I now treat with contempt. I was absorbed in online debates against the citizens of what was once my home. Yes, online debates, with all of their frivolity.

The debate concerned a series of letters to the editor of the town newspaper, explaining why the nonsecular should be able to enforce their morals upon the whimsical fancy of the homosexual “tyrants.”

When arguing in the comments section, I cited various court cases concerning issues of marriage. My opposition told me they disagreed with my comments, even though all I did was remind everybody of a fact, not necessarily taking up a position. When I told them to merely examine the preponderance of evidence, I received the curt response, “I don’t do reading assignments.”

Oh, dear sir or madam, how do you learn?

While I won’t delve into gay marriage specifically, I’d like to articulate the importance of educated argumentation, or as the right would like to call it, “liberal indoctrination.”

I have argued and debated on many occasions throughout my two years in college. In fact, some would go as far as to say that I am obsessed with debating. I yearn for the chance to display what skill I have and foam at the mouth when the situation arises.

Arguing provides me the opportunity to test my knowledge against adversity. Through arguing, I learn from both my own assertions and from those of my adversary. This Socratic approach to learning, the idea of obsessively questioning and arguing with skepticism, I believe, has been neglected in our society.

The reason why rational, educated argument has been neglected is because it is often difficult, time-consuming and overwhelmingly dense. This is a turnoff for some people, and it is much easier to regurgitate the ditto-head refutations of Rush Limbaugh and his band of cronies. In the case of my aforementioned Spring Break debacle, a recitation of religious interest.

Now, I don’t mean to single out any one political side specifically. Misinformation is prevalent on both the left and the right. However, it is exhausting when I must constantly correct uneducated morons. I don’t care if you disagree with me, as long as you are true to yourself and true to factual evidence at hand. In fact, I prefer that you disagree with me and that you are skeptical. That is what makes learning truly great, when we must come to a conclusion about important matters.

How will I learn from the debate if you have nothing to provide but factional dogma that is mere surmising from party-driven demagogues? If I want to listen to talk radio shows, I will.

If you’re going to argue with me, argue with conviction and at least have the courage to see both sides of the argument. At least have the responsibility to perform research before you take up a position, instead of aligning yourself with your party.

I should not have to ask a Libertarian who Friedrich Hayek and Robert Nozick are. They should already know who these people are before even declaring themselves “libertarian.” The same could very well be said of the conservatives and Edmund Burke.

I have friends who remark upon my, let’s be honest, incredibly dense columns and simply state, “I’d read your articles, but I already know that I will agree with you.” Heaven forbid! I could easily state that I am a Hitler-loving fanatic and you would agree at my bidding? I should hope not. This is the same horrible party delineation that I condemn.

Yet, as I reflect, this is exactly the problem. People are too lazy to come up with a true individual position that they have arrived at on their own. Instead, they just nod their head in agreement without knowing the gravity of their decision. Whatever happened to sifting through factual evidence, or doing “reading assignments,” and finding the truth in such matters?

If we perform research and fact check our party leaders, our political environment will flourish. No longer will we call Barack Obama a socialist, without actually knowing what socialism is. No longer will we claim that animals have rights under the 14th Amendment without having read the preface, “We the people.”

I believe that people will begin to enjoy arguing with each other and fulfilling their duty as citizens. Instead of regurgitating what other people have said, we will begin to string together our own conjectures in brilliant and clever ways.

The United States would return to the political prestige that it once had.

I encourage you, reader, to educate yourself on all of these overarching political matters and find your position on your own, whether that be on the right, left or neither.

I can only hope that we continue what the founders intended when this country was so young. We can be that intention, embrace it and educate ourselves, or falter, and prove me a dreamer after all.