With the 2012 elections looming, a Washington University professor says increasing partisanship is impeding the government from finding a lasting solution to existing problems.

Two slates are vying for Senior Class Council in the only contested executive race for the 2011-2012 academic year. The slates, Mission Accomplished and Pup N’ Suds, pledged at a debate Thursday night in Tisch Commons to base their programming off student input. They also expressed some openness to the idea of changing the location of next year’s senior class trip.

The first Student Union executive branch slate has formed with the hope of improving the student experience and communication between students and their government. The slate, UP, is the first to be announced. As of Sunday night, no other slates or candidates have been announced. Potential candidates have until Monday to announce that they are running.

Some students who voted on the South Forty in 2008 did not show up as registered voters on Tuesday, even if they had not notified the state of a change of address. They should have shown up as “inactive voters” on the voting rolls on Tuesday.

On Wednesday night, as I watched a patchwork of states turn slowly to crimson, I wondered where the love from politicians had gone, and found it to be replaced by anger. I realized that college students aren’t the angry ones anymore. It’s the frustrated middle class, and those were the votes that counted this time around. As young people, we are defined by our idealism, and America didn’t want to hear about it anymore. It wanted blood, and as result, young America has never felt more adrift and depoliticized.

The truth never seems to carry much weight in Washington, D.C. Since taking office almost two years ago, President Obama has “stimulated a recovery” in the economy, passed a “deficit neutral” health care bill, and “ended” a war in Iraq. Never mind that record unemployment is still around in a stagnant economy that finds over 40,000,000 Americans on food stamps.

As Fox News broadcasted on one television and CNN on the other, more than 75 students showed up to the Election Night Watch Party hosted by Washington University Political Review and the Gephardt Institute for Public Service. As election results rolled in, the mood was generally muted, though discussion was lively.

With the midterm elections less than a week away, it’s important to reflect on how the two major political parties have governed. With that in mind, it’s clear that the Democrats should continue to be in power.

When citizens of Missouri look to hire their next Senator, they must act like employers asking for work experiences and accomplishments, and like employers, overlook candidates who hide their past.

Students and St. Louis County residents went to the polls on Tuesday to cast their say on a sales tax increase for Metro, as campus leaders continued their mobilization effort to get students to turnout. With the future of public transit and sales taxes in the region on the line, students and administrators leading pro-Proposition A efforts worked feverishly to turn out as many students as possible before polls close at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, cash-starved local opposition called and e-mailed supporters and tried to gain as much media exposure as possible.