We now have 48 days until the general election. The polls are tightening more than ever with the fiasco of Hillary Clinton’s health and Donald Trump supposedly cutting ties to his birther past.

But besides the two campaigns making their own mistakes, we are now exactly five days to the first debate between the two candidates for president. Now more than ever, it’s imperative to watch what these two candidates do in the arena before we go to the polls.

According to Newswire, almost 67 million Americans watched the first 2012 debates between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney. Of that 67 million, 12 million of them ranged from ages 18-34. Compare that to the 30.8 million viewers ranging from age 55 and above.

Now to go into the specifics of why us young people are not as active in our electoral processes; look at the article Millennial’s political capital or my last column the Importance of being a voter.

Now like last time, third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein did not make the minimum cut of 15 percent in five different polls to get on the debate stage for the first debate, however, they could participate in future debates if they make that mark before then.

The viewership numbers are lower when you look at the 2016 primary debates. Only 24 million people watched the first Republican Primary Debate while 15.3 million people watched the Democratic Primary Debate back in October of last year, according to US News. Viewership is also low during the primaries because most Americans don’t even participate in the elections until after labor day.

Yet during those primary debates, we go to see policy work and studies in action. For example, the policies of both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in both the realms of domestic and foreign policy. Though Clinton historically won the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, she incorporated some of Sen. Sander’s policy ideas with her own.

Despite all of what was said before, the main thing here is this: Debates are a good way for us to know who has a better plan to solve the issues we face as a nation.

We as citizens have our own ideas on how we could solve the problems that America faces and some of those ideas match the two major party candidates running for office.

I know many of you may not agree with either of these candidates, that they are the lesser of two evils, but we must look at the policy positions that the canadates are supporting and/or have fought for.

So in these next five days I challenge you to get the facts, and be prepared. Try to know these candidates better than you know yourselves and have an open mind when you watch these four debates because thats how you pregame for a political fight night.