Yay, we are seniors now, the big fish in a small pond, the ones that people look up to. Being seniors, most of us are going to turn 18 before November, so that means we can vote in the next presidential election. We can finally share our opinions with the rest of the United States. We are finally considered adults, and our votes count. That’s great, right? Wrong.
So yeah, we can all vote in the next election, but what is the point of voting if you don’t know what you’re talking about? Most teenagers that I know don’t watch the news. We don’t do research on presidential candidates; we only hear about their scandals and we might be able to recognize their faces if we saw a picture of them. Most teenagers don’t understand what exactly it is that each candidate stands for. Most of the time, we are spoon-fed ideas by parents, teachers or the media.
What bothers me is that people argue with each other like they know what they’re talking about. I see statuses all over Facebook where people complain that the president isn’t doing what he said he would do. Or tweets about Republican candidates after debates. I completely respect that people may have differences in opinion, but when those opinions are unfounded is when it becomes a problem. Don’t argue that you like Barack Obama if you can’t even name two political things you like about him. And don’t argue that you hate Obama if you can’t name two views of his that you disagree with.
People complain that presidential candidates don’t follow through with their ideas, but I don’t think people really understand how the system works. I’m pretty sure that it’s not fair to blame any of this on one single person. The government has branches so that the president doesn’t have complete power; those branches regulate what laws are passed and what decisions the president can make. No matter who the president is, that doesn’t mean it’s all up to him to follow through on his views. If we blame him, we should also blame the Senate, House of Representatives and the Judicial Branch.
Most of the time people don’t consider how the system works when they vote for a candidate, and they argue all of these crazy ideas or support candidates that they know absolutely nothing about, which could be detrimental to the election in November.
If the new generation votes for someone who they haven’t even researched or know nothing about, how can that positively reflect what the people want for the future of America? It can’t.
Everyone deserves to have a vote, so I’m not saying we should change the voting law, but I do think that people should do their research before they do vote. A teenager blindly voting based on what they heard from their parents or what they heard on TV isn’t benefitting America at all, and often, those people end up complaining in four years about the taxes they have to pay or the state of the economy.
My point is, do your research before you vote. Don’t send our country into a complete downfall because you decided to check a random box on the ballot sheet. And before you go arguing with someone about politics, know the facts before you make an argument and sound like a complete idiot who has no idea what they’re talking about.