Elections are over and the Republicans have taken the U.S. House and Senate. A narrow majority has been duped (again). Here in Colorado the people were fooled into believing Cory Gardener will make this country a better place by an obsession with the Affordable Care Act. Big money and the oligarchic class have won the “battle” with distractions from the real issues facing us like massive student debt, crumbling infrastructure, lack of good paying jobs, access to affordable housing and on top of that, the money grubbing oligarchs (rich people ruling for their own narrow interests), continuously pollute our air, water and treasured open spaces while somehow convincing people that is it actually good for us.

So where does this leave us? It leaves us with two more years of gridlock with the House and Senate Republicans trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, followed by vetoes. They will likely try to cut taxes for the rich and big corporations. More war may be on the horizon, environmental and wildlife protections and the National Parks could all be effected. This is turn may force the President to act more unilaterally than before, vetoing bills and issuing executive orders to combat the Republican treachery. This will only give those old buzzards more ammunition to complain about the president.

We are faced with the issue of Presidential appointments as well. The Senate has to approve these appointments. In particular, we have to worry about judges. With the U.S. Supreme Court already stacked with radical conservatives we cannot afford to allow more judicial seats to be taken by these judges that threaten the republic with their warped views of the constitution and broad activist rulings.

Of course it’s not like Democrats are not influenced by big money, rotten politics and lack of strong leadership. Remember 2009 when they held the house senate and executive and failed to take the strong leadership that was needed to pass a single payer health care plan? Or this year when John Hickenlooper and Jared Polis cut a deal to keep a citizens’ ballot initiative off the ballot and directly violated the will of the people to keep big oil and gas money out of this election.

The silver lining is this, voters here in Colorado had the sense to turn down Amendment 67, Amendment 68 and Proposition 105. We are fairly judicious when deciding on issues but fail to elect virtuous relevant people to run our state and country. We are better than this and need to think hard about what is important to us. As students and millennials we need to care about this stuff and seize political power. We need to start running for offices and filling the seats of government because if we do not, we are going to keep getting politics as usual, which will just leave us with the bill and no way to pay for it.

Collegian Columnist Ryan Deuschle can be reached at letters@collegian.com