Elections are coming and so are  hardcore political debates. Yelling, screaming, debating and degrading political parties and views. The season where we attack people because we disagree with them politically is here. It’s wonderful that citizens engage in respectful and mature debate, but there must exist some prior knowledge.

President Barack Obama will be leaving office in January 2017, and right now a lot of people are competing to take power after him. The United States is a democratic nation where citizens have the power to elect their leaders. This means that citizens have a responsibility to be politically educated on the candidates and the issues present.

Major political problems are the economic growth rates, criminal justice reform, student loan debt, national debt, racial tensions, illegal immigration, and foreign policy.

Do American citizens understand all these issues? No they don’t. American citizens are privileged to live in world with great technology, but don’t understand the rudimentary elements of government and politics.

Evidence of this is the reaction to most political comments made by Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. The United States Constitutions doesn’t grant the President enough power that would allow Trump to implement his unrealistic plans.

The Presidential Powers are located in Article II of the United States Constitutions. They articulate what the President can and can’t do. The United States Congress controls all the legislative matters, and under Article I has the power to make laws. Our focus should be on Congressional elections and how we can constructively enact change.

According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania Americans knows surprisingly little about their governments. The Policy Center conducted a survey sampling young adults and asking them general questions about their governments.

While little more thirty six percent of respondents could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just thirty five percent could not name a single one. Many of these Americans are active voters who engage in political discourse, but they couldn’t identify major branches of government.

This lack of understanding of politics is why the political process has been abrogated in contemporary times. Our political leaders are ignorant, arrogant, insensitive to issue not germane to themselves, and don’t understand their fellow citizens. Our leaders represent who we are as citizens. We see this with Donald Trump who surged up the polls after racially offensive comments were made.

Congressman stay in office for decades unchallenged because they continue to satisfy their constituents to get reelected without accomplish serious actions. Balancing a budget, funding college education, fighting foreign enemies, and term limits are all wonderful things that may be accomplish but it starts with us the citizens.

The citizens of a country must be willing to compel their leaders to accomplish serious reforms or they will continue to be subject to lethargic governmental practice. People should first begin to understand their governments from federal to local level. We can’t blame Obama or the Congress for an issue that a state or city government has enacted. This lack of understand is manipulated by politicians for political purposes. Blaming a certain group for problems they are not associated with.

The President has no control over budgets, deficits, or debt. Article I Sections 8 Clause 1 gives Taxings and Spending power to the Congress. A President is simply manipulated their voters when touting about lowering deficits or debt because he doesn’t have the power to do so. Congressman are attempting to obtain political points by blaming the President of high deficits and outrageous spending because the President is not responsible for such endeavours.

Our leaders and politicians use our lack of political literacy to induce fears and promise to correct those fears even if the are unrealistic. The issues facing America are beyond Democratic or Republican solutions, they need American solutions. American citizens must put aside personal political baggage and hate, learn the basic elements of governments, and attempt to contribute in a coherently constructive manner.

The myriad of potential and possibility for success is high, but citizens must desire change and action for change and action to occur.