Go Vote!

Justin Lockhart, Sports Editor

The time is coming up fast. The midterm elections are now less than a month away and you can feel the intensity in the air as the Republicans try to maintain a majority throughout the senate and the house.

Meanwhile the Democrats are trying to usher in this new blue wave of young and liberal individuals.

Every single time I am able to see a program on cable, not HULU or Netflix, I see tons and tons of election-based commercials. They all try and paint the other party and the other candidate as evil and trying to strip away your freedoms and securities.

However, many of these ads are very misleading and sometimes outright false. Take it from someone who went door knocking over the summer during the primaries to try and get local officials in the general race, political ads lie.

I remember seeing one such ad that painted the opponent in a manner that would let the reader believe the opponent had no backing what so ever and was underqualified for the job. In reality, this candidate had more political and private supporters of his race than the candidate putting forth this misleading literature.

So, go online and review the candidates running for office in your districts. Don’t just look at the national races, look at the people running for state positions as well, they are just as important. The people at the state level are the ones who will get to decide how much the Governor’s scholarship will be, what state colleges get what funding, and which employees get to keep their benefits. I don’t care who you vote for, as long as your vote is informed and not simply based on arbitrary feelings towards the parties.

Don’t vote for Republicans just because you see all Democrats as whiny liberals who want to give everyone a handout, as there are conservative Democrats in the race who are not extremists. Similarly, don’t just vote for Democrats because you think all Republicans are racist bigots, there are whole-hearted, kind Republican candidates in the world.

If you take away anything from this article it’s this: do your research on the candidates, and go out and vote on Nov. 6. There is still time to get an absentee ballot if you will not be able to get to your polling location, if you don’t know how use your best friend google! That thing always has the answers.

If you aren’t registered, get registered. Every vote counts! Get your friends together, make sure they’re registered, make sure you all do your homework and elect the person you think represents your interests in the political sphere the best.