Right Fraulein?
Posted on 01/04/2013 5:36:17 PM PST by nickcarraway
A German minister is calling for children to be given the vote, it was reported on Thursday. He said that excluding the country's 13 million under-18s was "absurd", triggering a backlash from other politicians. Dirk Niebel, Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), "We must give children a voice - in elections as well."
The current age limit on voting in Germany is 18 which, he said, was "completely inappropriate" although he was not specific about when he wanted children to be given suffrage.
On a practical level, the Free Democrat (FDP) politician said that parents could take responsibility for overseeing their child's vote or even using on their behalf. This would give families a louder political voice and force politicians to take children and families more into consideration.
He argued that denying the vote to Germany's 17 million over-65s would be absurd, yet excluding children, a sixth of the country's population, was accepted without question.
Niebel's idea provoked constitutional objections from his colleagues.
Ingrid Fischbach from the Christian Democratic Union, the governing coalition partner alongisde the FDP told the WAZ that “no one can argue against the idea's charm” but that in reality “voting is a private matter and one that constitutionally cannot be exercised by a third party.”
She added that it would be hard to check whether parents were actually ticking the box their child had chosen.
Thomas Krüger, president of Germany's children's union, said that although he would be in favour of dropping the voting age to 16, and eventually 14, he disagreed with allowing parents a proxy vote for their child.
But support came from Paula Honkanen-Schoberth of Germany's national child protection association who said children should have voting rights as soon as they were born.
She said that children were often under-estimated and studies showed that they demonstrated interest in political issues from as early as the third grade.
Free Candy for everyone!!
Yeah, and let all of my 14 goldfish vote, too.
Here in America, we already have.
Ignorant Liberals and Democrats.
Child labor laws are “absurd” too then. Let’s get those young voters paying taxes to pay for those new ponies and free candy they’ll vote for.
I’ll bet that 13 year old German kids can make iPhones cheaper than 13 year old Chinese kids.
Why not? In Chicago the dead get to vote.
Yeah like they have discernment and experience to know if they are being deceived at that age by the politicians or not. Oh wait, now I get it...: )
How about chickens?
The “spiip” vote will be massive.
Yeah, and they all voted for Obama.
U.S. Dummy-cRATS to propose the same here soon.
Hey Jughead! They’re kids. How ‘bout letting them grow up first. Besides, there are already way too many uninformed and misinformed voters out there as it is. You commies need to give the “voter” thing a rest.
Give the vote to the unborn.
Why not? Given the apparent level of voter ‘ed-ja-muh-kay-shun’ in the US, children may be better informed than their parents.
So it is Justin Beeber for President (forget he is Canadian) and the Telly Tubbies for the Supreme Court and lets not forget Barney for Attorney General.
Yeah, yeah, I know, that WOULD be an improvement!
Hard to believe this is an adult with seemingly an important job would actually suggest such gibberish....
Why not let children drive as well ....?
You know as long as they can see over the steering wheel.....it’s OK
It's too bad those new voters are too stupid to know they are being played.
"For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away... the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder; the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the expert artificer, and the skilful enchanter. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them." -- Isaiah 3:1-4
Exactly!!!!
This leftist simply seeks to community organize and champion for a new group of 'victims'...
I am surprised that the kenyan marxist has not advanced this type of "young justice" initiative yet.
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