Alyssa Roberts (Claremont McKenna) on American Values

Take a basic value: family. Our culture is constantly evolving. Grocery stores shelve the latest frozen food innovations, cable news networks spit out headlines every thirty seconds, and leggings suddenly become acceptable replacements for pants. Family keeps us grounded in this ever-changing, confusing world. Three ingredients keep my family strong: Laughter, support, and love – plus a heavy dose of sarcasm. But that’s just my family – no two are the same. Yet some Americans think that their idea of an appropriate family arrangement should be the only family structure. What is ideal for one family, however, is not always ideal for another.

America was founded as the land of opportunity. Ideally, all Americans would have equal opportunities to achieve the societal standing charmingly known as the American Dream. But not all of us are born into schools districts with equal economic resources and raised by parents who value education. Some of us jumpstart our careers via family connections, while others can gain experience through unpaid internships. Opportunities are numerous, but the playing field is far from even. How – and whether – to compensate for uneven opportunity creates another division.

Independence is also one of our founding values, and, ideally, it would never be infringed upon. Free speech, free exercise of religion, and the right to privacy are all part of this concept. But society challenges a person’s right to independence if he interferes with another’s liberty. An independent person cannot take another’s property or injure someone else. But does my desire to protect my children from explicit content supersede your desire to broadcast pornography? Or does my choice not to purchase health insurance outweigh your interest in paying a lower premium? Independence is not entirely independent.

To overcome these political divisions, we must return to the values they arise from and practically weigh the costs and benefits of our different views of the ideal. But perhaps these debates are so heated because we are unable to overcome our attachment to our differing views of idealism. Maybe that’s why we have the Supreme Court: what’s ideal, according to the Founders, is what’s constitutional.