Many students seem to know almost everything about the candidates in the upcoming presidential election. But the general election isn’t as all-important as it may seem. All of the attention on this election ushers in an opportunity to bring more attention to less publicized elections. Think about who is running for Congress. Can you name any candidates? Maybe not. Voting for representatives is just as important, if not more important, than voting for the president.
The three branches of the government are set up so that the House and Senate have more authority than the president in certain situations. This is also a good time as any to start caring about the actual issues these candidates are representing. The focus of this issue of the Mill Stream is about people in our community fighting cancer. If we can vote people into congress that have great ideas about reforming the American healthcare system, we can make a better life for them and everyone else in our country. Our system is broken, and it needs fixing. Pharmaceutical companies can jack up per-pill prices from pennies to thousands of dollars overnight. Some Americans are afraid to go to the doctor because copay prices are so high. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to fix this, but according to Time Magazine, one out of every three Americans still cannot afford to get the care they need. It’s not right for people in a first-world country to be dying because they can’t afford medication for easily-treatable diseases.
If you aren’t satisfied with how the government is operating, vote for people who you believe can fix it. Students voting in the upcoming election need to care about more than just which candidate would be the most entertaining or cool if voted into office, and start caring about their actual positions on issues that matter. We need change, and with all the attention on this big election, we may finally be able to vote people with fresh ideas into Congress. The Mill Stream believes that students need to start thinking about the real issues in the upcoming election, and start caring about the less glamorous parts of the government.