President Barack Obama addressed Americans in his final State of the Union speech Tuesday night, when he said “the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better.”

Too many Americans feel as though the system favors a special interest, he said.

“Democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter,” he said.

Obama spoke about his hopes for the future, in addition to addressing some of the changes that have taken place over the past seven years.

“Each time (we’ve faced change), there have been those who told us to fear the future…and each time, we overcame those fears,” he said. “We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more people.

But positive change doesn’t just happen, he explained — people have to work together to make choices.

Obama said change is the reason many Americans are worried about the economy.

“For the past seven years, our goal has been a growing economy that also works better for everybody,” he said. “We’ve made progress, but we need to make more.”

He also made the point that economic issues were not caused by food stamp recipients or immigrants, adding that workers and small businesses need more of a voice in the economy.

The cost of college was another topic Obama addressed. Student loan payments have been reduced, but now, he said, the cost of college needs to decrease.

He aims to achieve this by working to provide two years of free community college to responsible students.

Bringing the topic of climate change into the address, he said anyone who argues against the science behind climate change would be “pretty lonely.”

“Even if the planet wasn’t at stake,” he said, “why would we want to pass up the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the energy of the future?”

When discussing foreign policy, Obama said the focus should be on threats from terrorist groups, but it has to go beyond that.

“The world will look to us to help solve these problems, and our answer needs to be more than tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians,” he said.

He went on to say that simply trying to take over and rebuild countries isn’t leadership.

“The point is American leadership in the 21^st century is not a choice between ignoring the rest of the world…or occupying and rebuilding whatever society is unraveling,” he said. “Leadership means a wise application of military power, and rallying the world behind causes that are right.”

He said that though people don’t have to agree on everything, people have to work together to achieve the future they want.

“This isn’t a matter of political correctness,” Obama said. “(The world) respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.”

Kevin Reilly, treasurer of College Republicans at Central Michigan University, said the lack of compromise is his biggest issue with politics today.

"The parties have become more entrenched in their beliefs and they don't want to compromise on anything," Reilly said. "My biggest problem with Congress is they don't get anything done. I at least want to see an attempt at coming together."

The future of the United States, Obama said, depends on people voting and speaking up.

“I believe in change because I believe in you, the American people,” Obama said when wrapping up his speech.

Tim Minotas, president of College Democrats at CMU, said Obama's point about the importance of voting was his biggest takeaway from the address.

"(Obama) said we need to vote, we need to speak out, we need to participate and I think that's super important considering many citizens are apathetic about our politics," Minotas said.

Reilly said he thought the speech was unusual because of the goals Obama presented and the way he concluded with the words that the speeches usually start with.

"I thought it was a little unusual just because you don't usually see a lot get done in their last year. He put some lofty goals out there and hopefully he can at least get something done," Reilly said. "I'm not a big fan of him but I'd rather have the government do something than kind of sit there and just wait for the year to end."

Minotas also said the speech was untraditional.

"It was a vision of the future, what we need to be progressing on and really just reminding Americans who we are as people. I really felt it was a direct voice to us as young people and how we should act in the future and the progress we should build on," Minotas said.