Politics

Power to them. Kids and teens are part of our communities, they’re affected by decisions, so they should have a role in making them when practical. I absolutely trust a 16 year old to vote, and make decent community-minded decisions - most already do so and contribute a lot, just without the same rights as slightly older people. I think this is a step in the right direction.

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...

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.

The graduated system of adulthood in this country is very odd in many ways. The age of consent, when you're old enough to start drawing a paycheck, when you're allowed to start driving, when you're allowed to start voting, and when you're allowed to buy marajuana or alcohol are all different ages. And through all of this you're expected to conduct yourself like an adult while your brain chemistry is going through radical changes. I don't know what the right system is, but I feel like it's surely not this one. Maybe the increased franchisement these kids are asking for is right. Maybe we should just be expecting less from our youth. I don't know

I love this idea. After watching how irresponsible our state was with kids' health and education these last three years, it might be time to give students a real, legitimate voice in their own public schooling.

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.

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.

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.

yeah not a big fan of that idea. I remember my political ideas when I was 16. I used to believe that social darwinism would be the best policy, to just rod the world of the weak, and the strong would prevail making the world better. I was convinced of this by my other 16 and 17 year old friends, who likely heard about it in one of their classes in highschool. in fact a lot of us believed this, as 16 year olds are really easily convinced of ideas that sounds good when spoken. It didn't take me long once I got out of highschool and started getting my first adult experience to realize how stupid that idea is.

The problem is high schoolers mainly experience the struggle of navigating social groups and are just trying to figuring out how to fit in with those around them. They are surrounded by peer pressure by those who also don't fully understand the complexity of social relationships. They are bound to have strong opinions based on little real world experience.

Not only that, it is easy to manipulate large groups of young highschoolers to believe what you want them to. Does anyone remember "The Wave" experiment where a highschool teacher was able to convert almost the entire student body into fascist beliefs before dropping it on them what he had done? I worry that if highschoolers are able to vote, that our already corrupt politicians will absolutely abuse that susceptibility to their own agendas.

Finally! 😏 The world is changing: the concept of a minor no longer makes sense in a context of irresponsible adults like today! Moreover, today's kids have no right to decide the future that is penalizing them from an environmental and work point of view!

https://www.informapirata.it/2023/03/28/sinite-parvulos-a-truly-universal-suffrage/

I feel like there would be quite the pushback from a certain group of individuals.

This works great here in Scotland (unless you ask the Tories, who probably do worse because of it 🙃). Push for it!