Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
I doubt it. The average 16 year old is not generally interested in politics, or his fellow man. While some may be, most are more interested in the latest fashions, who's boinking who in school, and who's going to win on American Idol (or whichever version goes on in your country.)


I think that varies. I think I would give the right to vote to anyone who's completed the first year of their enlistment in the military, but not draftee's. Anyone, including draftee's, who is honorably discharged from the military. Anyone who completes four years of college, or equivalent, at an accredited university. I don't think I would give anyone else the right to vote before age 25.


A good voter is someone who will vote for the person best qualified for the job, regardless of political affiliation or popularity.

A good citizen is someone who will work to help the elected officials do their jobs, regardless of whether he voted for them or not.
I think a good voter is almost non-existent then. I believe choices like Gore vs Bush, Kerry vs Bush, and Obama vs McCain have consistently reflected a choice of evils. I have a hard time believing that either of the two opposing candidates in any case was the best person to be president.

Bush and Obama both won largely on Charisma, and both have at times seemed overwhelmed by the job.

Furthermore, voting based on qualification suggests that the entire values voters movement is wrong.

As for the voting age over 30, as it is there are some incredibly ageist policies in place in the government and that would be likely exacerbated by increasing the voting age. Running up the national debt is something that punishes the youth of the nation. Similarly social programs related to retirement and old age operate on pay it forward pyramid schemes and the deductions made for them don't actually pay for the programs themselves. The people with the most incentive to fix this are in fact people under 30, who will be facing the raised fees to pay for these programs during their prime earning years. A large portion of the people over 40 are probably a lot more accepting of the idea of running up the national debt and taxing someone else down the road to pay for social programs they will use but aren't adequately funding. Or running up the debt to keep taxes low now while they are in the best earning years of their life, even if that means unfairly taxing people down the road.