Like most other seniors, I’ll be turning 18 this year. I don’t have a lot of set plans; I may party, I may not, it depends on who’s reading this.

One thing is certain, however, that is: I’ll be filling out my voter application.
The world of politics is engaging to me; I enjoy reading the news, as well as participating in it, and the current events of the world excite me.

Of course, not everyone is as passionate as I am when it comes to this topic, but most people will want to or will feel the need to vote one day.

A majority of the application will be simple. Name. Address. Phone number. Yeah, yeah, let’s get to the ballot. But before one can go into the voting booth, the party affiliation section must be completed.

The what?

Of course, there are the Democrats and the Republicans, but what do those labels stand for?
Their platforms are much more complex than just saying one fights for equality while the other fights for jobs.

Depending on where one gets his or her news from, biased stories can poison that person’s mindset on a certain party or official.

For example, “Fox and Friends” (a daily show on the Fox News Network) ran a health story last December saying President Obama wanted to ban donuts.

Another media site, Breitbart, just days after this story, stated that the Food and Drug Administration was aiming to ban cake and donut sprinkles.

If anyone goes to Krispy Kreme today, it’ll still be open and there will still be sprinkles on the cakes.

Why? Because the president didn’t ban them. He had no aim to.

In truth, he wanted to ban trans fat, which is not required to make donuts or nearly any food for that matter.

This component is merely a bad health habit that is found in daily foods but can banned without monetary or taste costs. In fact, New York City banned it in 2007; even McDonalds stopped cooking their fries in trans fat a decade ago.

So why is this silly example important?

If students, or people in general, don’t do their research and listen to one biased news source, their knowledge of current events is crippled and therefore they cannot make intelligent political decisions.

Another example is the University of California tuition increase, which was a hot topic towards the end of last year and is still being discussed. The term “tuition increase” receives an automatic NO from most students, but what isn’t known by some is the reason for this increase.

The UC system aims to increase the number of undergraduates by 5,000 with this escalation, along with other monetary reasons that include hiring more staff.

Now that sounds reasonable. That’s a greater chance for high school graduates to get into college. And those with a legitimate financial need can receive an increase in monetary aid. So not everyone will be in a lot of debt.

Another example is the more recent goal to make community college free. This may sound spectacular at first, but the only way to make this possible is to have higher taxes to pay of the millions of students who will qualify for this benefit. Those taxes will come out of the civilians’ pockets. Again, this is not to say this endeavor is positive or negative. Instead, this is merely to offer a different point of view.

In addition, this isn’t to defend the UC tuition increase, nor is it to support the biased headlines that persuade viewers. These are just a few examples that display the complexity of some issues.

These models aren’t the only controversial topics, but a decision can still be made by well-informed individuals; and the reality is that some things will be sacrificed for the majority’s choosing.

The point is that in order for young people to intelligently participate in the politics that influence their lives, they must first understand the basics of an issue — from all perspectives. This works the same with the party affiliation mentioned earlier. It’s effortless to make a decision based off of what one’s parents believe or don’t believe; but if students want to make rational decisions as an independent individual, then they must understand the politics that are impacting their lives — and take a stand toward those issues.

One political party is neither bad nor good, but a student should side with the party that is most similar to their views, not because of what their parents or family or friends believe.

It doesn’t take much to understand who the Democrats and who the Republicans are and what their platforms mean, but it does take some initiative from the individual to be informed of legitimate current events.