While I may not be able to vote until the 2028 election, with the candidates we have running for president, I still would not vote even if I could.

Politics in this country has turned into voting for post-retirement aged men who are in opposing parties, which apparently means that we should believe them to hold different values; most of the time this isn’t the case. 

Age limits young and old should be enforced for presidential candidates, which should coincide with the retirement age of the country. In no way should a candidate above the age of 70 be the nation’s president.

There has been a rise of politicians completely new to the field, such as former president Donald Trump. Even though it’s okay for non-politicians to run, I don’t think that they have enough knowledge relating to politics. It almost feels like a Dunning-Kruger effect, in which people with limited knowledge of a topic, in this case politics, overestimate their capabilities and think that because they can run a business, that means they can also run a country. 

Politicians in general are not considerate of the true needs of citizens but seem to be concerned with fulfilling their political agenda. This does not pinpoint one part, but the whole system. They seek to gain money and power out of it, at the expense of American lives. They increase the economic state of the country, which now many people and families are barely able to afford basic needs. 

Politicians don’t even care about the current healthcare system, which is extremely overpriced. Why is calling an ambulance $10,000? Why is life-saving medication costing hundreds of dollars, or even thousands? And not to mention, how many states have made laws banning abortion, which is an essential right for all women. 

While it may be easy to think, “Oh, we can just fix it if we elect the right candidates,” this system is so corrupt to the point of being broken, which now will make it nearly impossible to fix because who in their right mind would want to ruin their career, family and future, just to be president of this country?

Instead of focusing on voting for the right people, we should focus on what we can change with our system.