Posted on 09/19/2014 2:56:32 PM PDT by right-wing agnostic
Scotland allowed 16 and 17 year olds to vote in yesterday’s historic referendum on independence. Georgetown political theorist Jason Brennan, author of the excellent book The Ethics of Voting, makes a strong case that the United States should do the same thing:
Scotland decided to trust its 16-year-olds to vote in the biggest question in its history when the country headed to the polls this week for a referendum on independence. Americans, in contrast, don’t even trust theirs to help pick the county sheriff. Who’s right?
Many here might be skeptical about the idea of the United States following Scotland’s lead in lowering the voting age. The trouble is that the main reason most people cite for barring 16- and 17-year-olds from voting looks like an equally good reason to stop most American adults from voting, too.
The key argument against letting high school juniors vote is simple: Their choice would affect all of us. After all, a voter chooses for everyone, not just him or herself. Many worry that most 16-year-olds lack the wisdom or knowledge to cast smart votes, so we don’t let them vote because we want to protect ourselves from their decisions.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
voting should be done at age 21, you can’t drink , but you can decide an election. That doesn’t even make sense, nor does letting kids vote who know nothing of the world
Social scientists also say that 16 year olds should not be held responsible for crimes the way adults are, because their pre-frontal cortices are not fully developed yet, and so they lack the judgment and impulse control that adults have.
Pick one, social scientists, pick one.
No..16 is just stupid.
Should we let 16 year olds vote?
Oh
Hell
No
No, 1000 times no! We need tests (intelligence and citizenship) before anyone should be allowed to vote. We see the terrible results of uniformed voting (and poor candidates).
Only if they pay taxes.
Why do we allow non-tax paying adults to vote?
They will always vote for politicians who will handout our tax money to the freeloaders.
Most 18 year old “adults” are too immature to really understand what they are voting for. Sixteen? No way.
What could possibly go wrong??
We already have too many people voting. Let them start supporting themselves and being subject to paying taxes.
What a mistake.
I say raise the voting age to 30.
Seriously.
I would normally be opposed to letting 16 year olds vote. I would be in favor, however, of allowing 13 year olds and above to vote provided we do away with this idea of adolescents not being responsible for their actions and we try all those individuals 13 and up who commit crimes as adults and sentence them as adults.
When you are old enough to die for your country in war then you are old enough to vote.
Not before and not later.
No!
I think it should be limited to property owners.
One needs skin in the game.
——Only if they pay taxes.——
That’s a can of worms you probably don’t want open...
Anyway a poll tax is illegal.....
They should vote when they are off their parent’s insurance policies.
Then we should also let 10-years old get driver’s license!!!
What is the age Obama care considers to be an adult, no longer eligible to be on mommy and daddy’s insurance? Is it 26, 27? That should be the new voting age. Maybe by then some will have figured it out.
I certainly wasn’t ready or informed enough to vote at 16. Though 2 years later I voted for Bush over Gore and 3 more after that I started becoming a conservative.
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