Throughout the last few months, the nation has been divided over who they want to see as the next president and who they want to never hear about again. Through all of this, people have still managed to find humor within what some may consider a precarious political situation. But, honestly, most people do not know a lot about the current political situation, which is truly a concerning fact.
If I were to be 100% honest, even I would not be able to name all of the candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties, and even if I do, I would not be able to elaborate and speak about a few of them. Even though I admit guilt in not knowing enough about politics, I am also not different from a majority of the population that is currently eligible to vote.
“A lot of times we teens do not know each party’s’ policies, and just pick whoever seems like the ‘popular choice.’ Since we are the future of America, we should be educated in something so important such as who runs our country,” said sophomore Danielle Aglio.
I believe that there should be a system in place where a person is tested for his or her credibility to vote. Much like the way one is tested to get their driver’s license, they should be tested about their knowledge on the candidates to know that they actually understand and take responsibility of who they vote for.
Most people tend to be interested in a candidate who is popular rather than the one who is the most eligible for the position. A number of people who support the Democratic Party are in favor of either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, solely because they are more popular than the rest of the candidates. Saturday Night Live took note of this in one of their monologues about the Democratic Debate, saying, “Let’s bring out the real candidates” while introducing Sanders and Clinton.
Professor Jeffrey Weiser believes that it would be a great idea to have mandatory education about the current news and politics for all the students. “Maybe a core class about news and politics that one must take regardless of their major would make things better.” Weiser said.
At St. John’s, we take courses such as philosophy and theology in order to incorporate different values into our lives, so why not institute a class as practical as this? It doesn’t matter if your major is biology or music; your vote counts. You don’t need to be a government and politics major to be a politician; you need the passion, vision and drive to make the country a better place.
One of the biggest mistakes that any educated person can make is to not participate. It’s still not too late to know more about the candidates and decide who you will be voting for, but more important than that is to go and make your vote, because it counts.
