As we approach the inauguration, many are still discussing politics quite heavily. However, the trend tends to be that following the inauguration, politics tends to go off of people’s radars. Despite the fact that the inauguration will be over in about a week, it remains important to talk about politics. Why? This is because change does not happen unless you bring change.

In the United States people tend to be politically active every four years during a presidential election. After the inauguration is over people tend to move on. This cannot happen for several reasons.

First off, all change doesn’t happen unless you can bring change and be motivating. If one forgets about politics for the duration of the four years between each presidential election, you can’t expect the change you want to see. This is true not only for the party without power, but also the party in power. For example, this year Democrats are expected to put up a major fight over the Affordable Care Act, which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. Republicans also have to fight if they want Obamacare repealed.

Second, Congressional Majorities are decided by midterm elections every two years. Senators come up for election every 6 years, and house members are up for election every two years. In the last midterm elections of 2014 only 36.4% of eligible voters cast ballots, compared to 58.2% of eligible voters who cast ballots in the 2012 presidential elections according to Time. Thus the section of government that creates our laws, trade deals, and budget, has little input from the US people. So those who are able to vote and don’t, can’t complain about Congress when they don’t vote to change it.

Third, especially in this day and age, it is important to be consistently politically informed. It seems that the majority of Americans are informed only every 4 years during presidential elections, despite the fact that major legislation is moving through Congress daily. As people continue to be politically active they naturally are more informed and pay more attention than the average American. I was constantly looking at politics during the primary and my father once said to me, “You know more [about politics] than most people going into the polls.” That is a huge issue. People need to be informed about the issues facing this country. As stated previously, your political affiliation does not matter because you should always be on top of decisions. Now I understand that politics isn’t exactly widely interesting compared to whatever modern craze is in, but it is always important to be informed about the issues that do and don’t affect you because sooner or later they all will affect you.

It’s not necessary to follow every single bill moving through Congress, every presidential decision or every single Supreme Court decision. All I’m saying is every week or so, check the news to see what happened in politics that week. If something you see interests you or inspires emotion, either good or bad, find out more about that issue.