A lot of the time we can get so focused on the big debates or the federal elections that sometimes we forget about the elections that directly affect us. 

Local elections are more important than federal elections — for the most part.  

On social media platforms, interviewers ask people about who they will vote for presidential candidates, then the interviewer will ask why they chose to vote for said person. The person will usually say things that have nothing to do with what the candidate has done in the past in terms of politics, or they will say that they will vote for said candidate because of a certain stance that they have on a political topic. Oftentimes, the candidate has no control over actually putting policy into place to take action because the issue could be given over to the states, because Congress won’t let them pass the policy. We should be more vocal about local elections because sometimes we don’t know why we vote for who we vote for. 

This leads me to my other point, which is that people should be more informed about not only who they vote for but also how politics and government actually work. Some people think that once you are elected to a powerful or famous enough position you can essentially do whatever you want. This isn’t the case. The higher position you have, the more constraints you have. This is because you have more people to look after, more responsibilities to uphold, and more people to please who might not all have the same goals. This is why bipartisan cooperation is very rare but also important and necessary to our community or country. 

People have to care enough about their community and politics to want to learn more about it. Once people understand how politics works, they will understand the direct impact that local government has on them, and from there they can vote for who aligns with their values the most.

Becoming more educated in politics is a big first step to becoming more involved in politics and government. When a person learns how both politics and government work in tandem they can make educated decisions on who they vote for and why they choose to vote for said candidate. We should also be more vocal about local elections and the things that we vote to do in our communities, while also having the uncomfortable conversations that we need to have with our local officials.