With midterm elections coming up, both parties seem to be trying their hardest to make the other one look responsible for the recent economic turmoil in the nation. This is going on from the national level all the way down to local  elections. All of this political noise leaves people confused as to what the real culprit is behind our nations economic troubles.

The real answer is that both parties are to blame and that both parties must unite to fix the problem. No matter what your political leaning is, it’s imperative that we realize that all politicians act in a manner that is more centrist than leaning to either side. A good example of this is Obama’s foreign policy. Although those on the right often blame him for not being aggressive with terrorists his foreign policy has killed more top terrorist, leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan through drone strikes than President Bush did over a number of years. Whether one agrees with the legality of the strikes or not, it is clearly not a “liberal” thing for President Obama to do. Another example of the relative centrism of politicians at the top is the fact that President Bush was the one who signed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, into law.

Looking at these facts, it’s easy to understand why politicians may say one thing but do another. People are often only motivated to vote when politicians can play on political differences. They need these differences to charge their bases and get people to vote. There is very little room to insert your agenda on top of all the issues that the nation already faces. Of course, presidents do manage a few pieces of key legislation and actions that are strictly for their side of the aisle. Day to day however presidents of either party will likely go about making decisions in the same systematic way.

Congress, however, is a different story; because of the group mentality, no member of either party is willing to challenge their base, and will refuse to work with the other side or even vote for a bill if their entire party is not behind it. This leads to a deadlocked Congress. How can a nation function when the people we send to office cannot get over their issues and just use a little bit of common sense? Many non-partisan bills and ideas get stomped down because the two sides will just refuse to work with each other.

The real problem is that almost no young people participate in mid-term elections. These elections are in reality more important than the presidential election because it is Congress in the end that either passes or doesn’t pass a piece of legislation. As young people we have to ask ourselves who we really want in office. We need people who can work together or at least compromise, Our nation was founded on some massive compromises and it seems that they are almost impossible to come by these days. Whatever party someone belongs to, he or she should approach every candidate skeptically and look at hios/her record to see if he/she acts in a logical way or purely on the emotions of his/her party.

As an American, I hate to see our nation stagnate. There are an innumerable number of people in the world whose best interest is for us not to work together as a nation. The world today is a hostile place, a place where countries are slowly worn down because of their own indecisiveness. The Roman Empire fell because they spread themselves too thin and could not agree on anything.

They didn’t know where to send their troops, spend their money or which policies to enact.

When we go to the polls this November let’s remember that we are all in the same country and it is just as much in the Democrats interest to work with republicans as it is for Republicans to work with democrats, even if at times they do not feel like doing so.