Apart from the crude political advertisements we all see around election times, politics means relatively little to a lot of people. “Politicians” is another idea that seems lost; could it be the big suited figure we associate with high rises, closed doors, and corruption? Is it that ideological figure helping– but failing– to promote better times for all? Either way, both views project very distant images to the average citizen.

Now what about the issues; sure one would assume we are all relatively informed or at least aware of general economic trends for example. The news does a seemingly adequate job at referencing the odd term we can relate to: recession, job growth (or lack thereof), investments, opportunities. But is that it? If we live in an apparent democratic society, then why are we not acting like it? The only real way the majority of citizens feel like they are connected to the governmental system, given the nature of our state and the way a representative democracy works, is voting. Then why is it that voter turn out has a tendency to be half, if not less of our population? If the recent negative economic trend is affecting us personally, then why are we not more politically engaged?

Politics is more that just an election, or a bill, or even international relations. Politics is our everyday lives; our jobs, our school, our money. While many of us will not assume that our future careers have direct connections to the political world, in all reality most jobs are in some way.

So what does one do? Well for one, voter turnout should be way higher than what it is. Given our democratic, developed state our pitiful election numbers show there to be a disengaged and interested public. Certainly the blame is not solely in society, however if there is something we are not happy with, there are methods one can make our priorities known. First things first, though, and that is voter knowledge. One has to be, not only aware of the issues, but informed on different opinions and views and the consequences that they put forth. Reading the odd party platform–maybe a throne speech– and we could be on the way to a better informed, and hopefully engaged public. Maybe the realization of the implication of politics and its importance in our every day lives will motivate some of us to actually vote.

In attempts not to be an information ad, pushing society to vote, the thought simply is to get informed. Read the newspaper, in print or online, and even Facebook once in awhile can provide insight into the odd current event. Our society needs to have a little more connection to what happening in the world, because believe it our not, its implications can be felt in our very on backyards. We have that responsibility first, then at least we can properly criticize our politicians.

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