Why you should care about politics and how you can make a difference

By Bryce Cullinane

I have a 16 year old brother, and we are nothing alike. He is an avowed XBOX expert, paintball champion and fiction reader. As for me I can barely win a game of packman, the impact of a paintball traveling at 100 miles an hour makes me cringe, and I lack the imagination required to read fiction. Another of our differences is my love for politics and his loathing of it. For him it's just not relevant. He asks, "why should I care about what a bunch of old white men are doing?" I understand his point, and politics can seem irrelevant. But one statistic brings him around. We are currently spending about 9 Billion dollars a week in the war in Iraq. You might agree or disagree with the war, but in either case you are going to have to pay for it. The United States now has about 3 Trillion dollars in debt. This money is going to need to be paid back, and you will have to pay for it. So this is why you should pay attention to what is going on. But then you ask, how do I get involved? I would suggest jumping into the presidential election.

Whether you are old enough to vote or not, spreading the message about a candidate that you believe in and making politics cool can have an enormous impact. Here's why. The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement reports that in 2006, of eligible voters ages 18-29, only 24% of them actually turned out to vote. One of the main causes of this is that politics amongst young people is seen as irrelevant and "uncool." What this means is that candidates pay little to no attention to young people. But imagine what kind of impact you could have by simply going around and spreading the message that our nation owes about 3 trillion dollars in debt and that what we do in the 2008 presidential election will heavily influence whether that number goes up or down? You could have an amazing impact. So do research, find out which candidate you think has the best plan to reduce this deficit, and tell all of your friends about him or her. Even if you are not old enough to vote, you can help to stimulate a youth culture that cares about what happens in our nation's future. Do you want to pay ridiculously high taxes on 3 trillion dollars of debt? Since I think the answer is no, get online, do your research, and start a revolution amongst your peers. If teens start to care about what goes on in politics, politicians will start to pay more attention to their opinions and concerns.