In Barack Obama’s most recent, and final, State of the Union address he discussed many of the hot topic issues facing the country, however he failed to focus on an issue that is directly affecting how the nation’s political system is run and more importantly by who.

If you are still reading this and you’re under the age of 25 then you are probably more interested in how your nation is run than most citizens in your age group. Which brings me to the critical issue mentioned above, voter turnout for ages between 18 and 25 is the lowest it has ever been since the United States Census Bureau (U.S.C.B.) started tracking the turnout in 1978. Of course that is just the statistics for the citizens in that eight year age group that are even registered as voters. According to the U.S.C.B., the congressional election turnout was 41.9 percent in 2014. This is to say less than half of registered voters are practicing their right to vote, which in comparison to the entire population of citizens in the eight year age group that are not registered this is even more concerning.

But then again most of you will have either stopped reading at this point or simply turned the words into “blah blah blah” in your mind until you have altogether decided you are bored and begin to investigate the graphics that cover this page. Which of course, is exactly my point. Politics is boring, it’s boring and it doesn’t even seem to affect us. Except, oh yeah it does.

In an article titled, “10 Reasons Why College Students Should Vote”, it is explained that not only does voting exercise that unalienable right you have as a citizen (pretty much the only power you have anyway), it also shapes the policy agenda. What’s a policy agenda? Well, if you haven’t taken U.S. Government by now the policy agenda is essentially the issues that people (you and me) bring up and go on the handy dandy laundry list the government needs to address. Another incentive the article includes for participating in the political system that essentially shapes your entire life, if that isn’t one enough, is that politicians will not address student needs if there aren’t any student voters. Simple as that. No vote, no say.

Still not convinced? Ok, neither was I honestly as our nation contains more than 322,762,018 people, according to an article simply titled “The Size Of The U.S. And The World As Of 2016” in the U.S. News. So why should I vote, why does my one vote matter in the grand scheme of things? Well, this situation can be compared to something as common as bullying in schools in the sense that why should I stand up for the kid and get involved when somebody else could easily step up and do it instead? Why do I have to be the hero?

If every person views themselves as the bystander, than that kid will go on being bullied without the slightest hope that people care enough to stand up for him. In the same regard, how is that same apathy applied to politics any different? Although it may be a stretch, but isn’t the refusal to vote just indirectly agreeing with the idea of a dictatorship or an oligarchy. Isn’t that just saying, “Uh you want to raise my taxes? Sure. Oh and you also want to ban fast food. Well, ok I can live without Whataburger I guess.”? If nobody cares then how long will it be until the system just falls apart.

I realize dooms day in the political sense is hopefully a little farther off and more difficult to obtain than just by the lack of voting in America. But the bottom line is, if you don’t vote then you are just handing over your right to have a say in what you have to pay for and what laws you have to abide by. Do yourself a favor and take the two and a half minutes it takes to fill out the voter registration form, better yet even go the extra mile and prove your grandparents wrong and do something a little crazy and unexpected. Vote.