You should stop caring who the President is gonna be

News surrounding the Presidential election is everywhere. On TV, the internet, newsstands, radio. Everywhere you turn, it’s either Trump or Clinton staring back at you in the face with that dead look in their eyes.

The election has completely taken over everyone’s frame of mind. People are claiming that they are going to move out of the country if either of the candidates get elected. People are kicking people out of their lives who even dare to speak ill of their favorite candidate. This election has completely drawn a line in sand.

Now in retrospect, the world is not going to shatter on January 21st, 2017 when the new President steps into power. Trump will not automatically start building a wall and Hillary will not be coming for all your guns. It will take a very long time for them being President to affect your life.

One thing that will affect your everyday life, and one thing people need to start caring about more, is local elections. Who you vote to be mayor, town selectman, Superintendent, State representatives, etc. These are the people who are going to have more of an impact on your day to day to day life.

When it comes to where most of your tax money is going, road repairs, public safety, public education spending, transportation, and several other aspects, those are all decided by your local government. (No offense, but Obama doesn’t really care about the pot hole on your street.)

Local elections are basically presidential elections, just on a much smaller scale. This means that your vote is going to mean a lot more than it would in the presidential election. This also means that you are able to have more influence in a local election. Instead of standing in a sea of Trump supporters, you will probably run into the candidate running for Mayor while in line at the grocery store. During local elections, one voice can make a difference, and that is something that is crucial in society right now. Everyone wants to feel like their voice is being heard, and their voice can be heard by the local government.

Yes, it is incredibly important to care about who is going to be the next President, and as a political science major, it makes me so happy that so many people my age are interested in the race. But in the long run, local elections are just as important as the presidential election, and most people probably do not even know who is running in their local elections. Which is just as sad as people thinking that leaving the country if a certain candidate gets elected is going to do much difference.

Getting people interested in politics starts at the local level. If people are able to vote for a candidate at a local level and be able to see the change that they want to see, it is going to make them more interested in democracy and the process of democracy. This will make them more interested in politics in general, which will only increase voter turn out.

So go out and vote for your local government. You never know when someone from your town might just throw their hat into the Presidential ring.