It's a sweet trip to a candy shop
Where bon-bons play
On the sunny beach of Peppermint Bay
Lemonade stands everywhere
Crackerjack bands fill the air
And there you are
Happy landing on a chocolate bar
Posted on 05/05/2017 9:26:27 AM PDT by EinNYC
Political and social activism is surging in America. Protest groups are springing up across the country. Concerned citizens are marching in the streets to support science, women's rights, justice and immigration. Congressional offices are flooded with calls from constituents.
And much of the renewed political and social activity is being carried out by high school students — many of them committed and informed activists, yet still too young to vote.
It is time to give those students a voice in government.
That’s the goal of the New York Young Voter Act, a bill the Youth Progressive Policy Group is pushing with the support of Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D–Brooklyn) and State Sen. Brad Hoylman (D–Manhattan). The bill — A.6839/S.5646, if you want to look it up — would lower the voting age in New York State to 17 in all local and statewide elections. It would also improve the high school curriculum by bolstering nuts-and-bolts civic education with lessons on the history and meaning of the Constitution, plus more intense focus on "genocide, slavery, the Holocaust, and the mass starvation in Ireland," according to the bill.
As a practical matter, the bill would also provide all high school students with the opportunity to register in their classrooms so they’re eligible in time for the next Election Day.
Opponents may contend that 17 year olds are not emotionally or intellectually ready for the responsibility of voting. But American 17 year olds already shoulder many of the responsibilities of adulthood: They can join the military (with parental consent), they can drop out of high school and work to support themselves and their families (80% of American high school students will hold jobs and pay taxes before they graduate), and, of course, they can drive a motor vehicle — one of their most dangerous responsibilities.
Still, these 17 year olds are left with no say in public affairs; they have no say in how their tax dollars are spent, how their public schools are run, how the criminal justice system is administered, and how legislators set their agendas.
Beyond enshrining the adult responsibilities and maturity of most 17 year olds, setting the voting age at 17 would expand and improve dismally low levels of democratic participation and civic engagement. In Austria, Brazil, Argentina, Scotland and one Maryland city, civic engagement soared when lawmakers lowered the voting age to 16. For example, the voter turnout by newly eligible 16- and 17-year olds in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 was 75% — far higher than the 54% turnout by 18- to 24-year olds.
I was enlisted in the Air Force six weeks after graduation in June 1970. My draft number was 3.
At the time, the age to vote was 21. The argument went through Congress in 1972, and signed not long after in that year.
With the current crop of pansies being raised, I would not soil the military establishments with such dunderheads, as today.
With all these years as witnesses, the voting age should be raised BACK to 21, or even a time when someone would graduate with a technical college degree, meaning 23 or 24.
I believe it is the Democraps attempting to engineer another whole generation of youth in their pocket.
NO!
Give high schoolers the right to vote — young people need the right to be able to vomit in toilets and lie in gutters- they are exceptionally bright, and thus should be allowed to throw all their money into booze and rehab if they want to
I say raise the age to 30.
No, they don’t. The voting age needs to be raised to 30, at a minimum.
And, e-verify is a requirement for voter registration.
Add in being on public assistance (aka: welfare) excludes you from voting.
Also, any states and municipalities who have “illegal alien sanctuary status” on the books as an ordinance, policy, or law, are barred from participating in US federal elections for ANY federal office.
This means that if you declare yourself a “sanctuary precinct”, you will lose any and all representation in congress, and your senators and congressmen will not be recognized, or be allowed into congress.
High school kids certainly feel like they know as much as they need to know to be able to vote. But their liberal teachers frequently have no compunctions about telling kids how they should vote. To give them the vote would be to amplify the vote of already liberal union member teachers who also think they are smarter than regular people.
This will result in Bella Thorne being elected Governor of New York.
Then let them buy beer and cigarettes too.
At the very least, the age to vote should be the same as the age required to drink (21).
That's an interesting take. I had previously thought that people should meet a threshhold of being able to pay a certain amount of taxes, or own property or a business, except if they are old and have already done that for many years. But of course it would be harder to track.
Let's keep it simple and go back to one of the provisions of the Founders: only men can vote. That will decimate the Democrat party right there.
Get them voting RAT while they’re still fully indoctrinated? No thanks!
NONONONONONONO!!!, Even Jesus lived 30 years before beginning his ministry. It takes at least that much life experience before young people become adults mentally and emotionally. Liberals are young people who never became adults. It’s arrested development.
I don’t even like the fact that 18 year olds can vote, though I will say that Trump got two votes from my household from people below the age of 21.
My kids are exceptions to the rule, as they were home schooled, and have never been subjected to the sort of socio-political indoctrination most of their peers have suffered in school.
Given the diminished state of the average youngster’s critical thinking and observational skills, I’d prefer to see the voting age raised to 25.
That’s what we need, voters with minimal life experience who are ruled by hormones. /s
Heinlein was correct!
We need to increase the voting age to 30.
Lemonade stands everywhere
Crackerjack bands fill the air
And there you are
Happy landing on a chocolate bar
Anyone who votes should have to pass the standard exam given to citizenship applicants. That would entail at least a working knowledge of social studies and historical material. That in itself would eliminate 17-year-olds.
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