What happens in the voting booths today can affect your life when you're older, what kind of education you will get, what money you will make at your jobs, and what can happen to your family. Politics are in our everyday lives. They affect everything and everyone. No matter if you're an elderly person or a young child, politics plays a role in what goes on around you. Politics affects what meals you eat in school and what textbooks you have. They affect what your house costs, and they also affect the safety in your neighborhood. In some states, politics affects what your church does.

To a lot of people, political elections are like sports events, and they root for their favorite team. There are teams - or parties - that sometimes have the upper hand or home-court advantage. In some cities, the underdog will win, and in some elections, people will root for the party that has no chance but are loved anyway. It's easy when you're younger to want to change the channel on the TV when debates, speeches, or election commercials are on, but don't be turned off by the boring clothing. Don't feel like these people on TV are irrelevant to you and your friends because they're older. In this book, you will learn the basics of the political realm here in the United States and will learn what some words mean that you might have heard thrown around on TV.