{"id":1086,"date":"2016-02-13T16:53:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T21:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2017-05-03T18:08:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T22:08:20","slug":"why-students-should-care-about-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/why-students-should-care-about-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Students Should Care About Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer\u2019s note: this was written on 2\/10 so if any presidential candidate drops out by the time it\u2019s posted, that needs to be edited in.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

As many of you know, the primaries are going on right now. To those who are not as familiar with the Presidential election and what campaigning entails, the primaries decide who the Democratic and Republican candidates are.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are currently two Democratic candidates still standing: Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former Governor of Maryland, Martin O\u2019Malley suspended his run for the Presidential bid after suffering a disappointing loss at the Iowa Caucus (Feb. 1st).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DEM-2016-Debate-Sanders-Clinton-1\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

On the Republican side, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson and Jim Gilmore still stand. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina, amongst others, have suspended their runs for the Presidential bid after painful losses at the Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary (Feb. 9th). <\/span><\/p>\n

From now until June, the candidates will duke it out in all 50 states to win delegates. The candidate with the most delegates then goes on to become the\u00a0Democratic and Republican front runners.<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been a pretty impressive wave of millennial concern over social issues such as gender equality and racism lately; more and more college students are getting involved to fight in the name of feminism and racial justice. It\u2019s no surprise that these students have taken to social media to voice their opinions about the election coming up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voting for the first time in the 2012 election was absolutely exhilarating and rewarding. My vote mattered. I watched debates intently and made a personal, but significant choice. I had myself, my friends, my neighbors and the rest of the country in mind; I asked myself, \u201cWhich candidate would fight for our equality, fair treatment and financial stability?\u201d I never felt so proud to be an American.<\/span><\/p>\n

What some students don\u2019t realize is that a President has a vital role in college experience<\/a>; for example, Sanders is tenacious about free tuition for public colleges and universities. Clinton wants to lower interest rates on loans. A huge factor in students when picking a college is money. No surprise there. We are presented with a ridiculous tuition fee and then our email accounts are deluged with loan reminders. By the time we graduate, we are so overwhelmed with debt that we fear we won\u2019t be able to pay it off until we\u2019re 70 (if we\u2019re lucky).<\/span><\/p>\n

Paying for college isn\u2019t the only issue we should care about. How about women\u2019s reproductive rights? Gun control? Capitalism? Climate change?<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans stand their ground that Planned Parenthood should be defunded. Rubio received severe backlash for saying women are being \u201cpushed into abortions so that those tissues can be harvested and sold for a profit\u201d. Carson believes the whole climate change debate is \u201cirrelevant\u201d. Republicans also uncompromisingly defend in the second amendment: the right to bear arms. Democrats on the other hand believe women have full control their own bodies and are \u201cpro-choice\u201d and Clinton supports the idea that background checks should be done to those looking to own firearms. Sanders is passionately against the \u201ctop 1%\u201d and Wall Street, saying we should focus on helping the hard working middle class (he wants to raise minimum wage to $15).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"gettyimages-505037664\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

No one can tell you what to support. Your morals are YOUR morals. All these hot topics are relevant to everyone\u2019s life and as students, we have unlimited access to debates, candidates\u2019 past records and any interviews they\u2019ve conducted. The only thing that should influence your vote is your own judgment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Think of politics as a class: take some time out of your day to study and do research. Once you find a president to support, register to vote if you haven\u2019t yet and make a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Go to rallies. Take notes during debates. Read the newspaper. Buy totally fashionable merchandise (those \u201cFeel The Bern\u201d shirts are pretty neat if you ask me. If you like Trump, he has a bunch of \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d apparel). But most importantly, <\/span>get involved<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Support and vote for the candidate you think will best suit your needs as an American citizen and college student.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our generation is the future and we need to work harder to make that future as bright as possible. Remember, your voice and your vote WILL make a difference.<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If you need to register to vote, click here<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upcoming primaries schedule here<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer\u2019s note: this was written on 2\/10 so if any presidential candidate drops out by the time it\u2019s posted, that needs to be edited in. As many of you know, the primaries are going on right now. To those who are not as familiar with the Presidential election and what campaigning entails, the primaries decide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote.jpg",830,531,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote-225x144.jpg",225,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote-300x192.jpg",300,192,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote.jpg",830,531,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote.jpg",830,531,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote.jpg",830,531,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote.jpg",830,531,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Diane Cardoso","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/diane-cardoso\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Writer\u2019s note: this was written on 2\/10 so if any presidential candidate drops out by the time it\u2019s posted, that needs to be edited in. As many of you know, the primaries are going on right now. To those who are not as familiar with the Presidential election and what campaigning entails, the primaries decide…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/vote.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}