This is a good idea. Politics skews way too far to the older side, when it is the younger who will be more affected. 16 year olds can drive and have a job, and while they have maturing to do, they are absolutely capable of the level of thought required to vote. Ashcroft’s complaint about 14 year olds wanting to vote is quite valid- but hey, maybe he’s right and they should just aim for 14 right out the gate! Lol… I doubt this will go anywhere, but I hope I am surprised.
With issues like global warming, they’re ultimately the ones stuck footing the bill while their grandparent’s generation pours gasoline on the fire.
Seems like a decent idea. I have a pet theory that it’s not strictly that young people don’t vote, but that there is a relatively constant duration people who suddenly can vote take to learn that that is important. Kids, who can’t vote, don’t bother to think about it. And new voters tend to focus solely on the Presidential election. I think it takes roughly 8 years (two presidential elections) for people to learn that not voting has consequences. If we started kids voting earlier, we may find that they become regular voters earlier as well.
The hottest take is that the voting age should automatically slide to be the youngest age someone has been tried as an adult in the justice system…
Or lowest age to work without parental consent. Otherwise 16 year olds can’t vote for who gets to tax them.
That’s a damn fine take right there.
If somebody is old enough to work at a Target and get yelled at by Karens they automatically deserve the right to vote in my book.
Good for them; hope it works.
There is not a single argument against lowering the voting age that holds water.
Try it for yourself: think of any argument against it. “But what if they…” fill in the blank. And then realize old people already do that and we don’t require them not to.
“They don’t understand the issues!” MF’er, do you? “The Issues” is such a vague, broad, and nebulous term that you could use this to argue that anybody who can’t reproduce your exact opinions on demand “doesn’t understand the issues.” And here’s the thing: you’re not required to. Old people can vote literally by throwing darts at a board and not be disenfranchised for it.
“They’ll just vote for a celebrity.” Young people didn’t have the vote when Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse “the Body” Ventura, or Donald fucking Trump got elected to office. Hell, old people elected former actor Ronald Reagan and 40-odd years later we still haven’t recovered from the damage he did to the country and probably never will.
“They’ll vote for whoever is good-looking.” Disregarding that literally nobody on earth is that shallow, young people didn’t have the vote when Kennedy got elected.
“They’ll vote for whoever their parents do.” One would hope so; that’s called “instilling values” and it’s something most families strive for.
“They’ll vote against whoever their parents do!” Disregarding that this is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” logical-fallacy-circlejerk… one would hope so; that’s called “establishing your own identity” and it’s something most people should strive for.
And on and on. Every argument against lowering or even abolishing the voting age is like this. Either its a non-issue being made to sound like a catastrophe, or its something that old people already do and we don’t take away their rights for it.
“They don’t understand the issues!”
I love how right-wingers make the argument that young people are too dumb to vote and only adults are smart enough, but when ranked-choice/approval/etc voting reform is the issue at hand, they make the exact opposite argument—that adults are too dumb to understand the new voting system!
This. For all the bad votes young people may cast, I can hardly imagine them doing any worse than the adults have already done. I’m almost 40, and I am bitterly disappointed in my peers.
But let’s be honest. The real objection to letting young people vote is that they might vote left-wing. Every other objection is just a dog whistle for that one.
I also like to draw analogies to other age restrictions. If they’re allowed to drive a car, literally the most dangerous thing they can do in terms of causes of death, then how can they not be responsible enough to vote for their leaders?
We also have no qualms about sentencing 16 year olds as adults if they commit a bad enough crime. This one strikes me as society knowing 16 year olds are perfectly capable of being responsible but we just give them a bit more leeway.
And personally, I’ve met plenty of 16 year olds that are better informed about politics than a number of adults I know.
I feel like there would be quite the pushback from a certain group of individuals.
The same group of people who find child labour and forcing a child to go through pregnancy completely acceptable?
