Ruffled feathers

[juanoclock]

There was a news piece about Argentina. They're considering lowering the voting age to 16. The question being asked online by the news network was whether we should do the same thing.

I wrote: "To play devil's advocate, if we agree that the voting age should remain at 18, then shouldn't we also stop prosecuting juveniles as adults?"

This morning, I

Comments

[artkouros]

Sweet Mormon Jesus! Won't people ever learn from history?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRLwV2xafpk

I still remember this ad on TV. Must netfix this.

[juanoclock]

I'm going to have to look that up. How pleasantly bizarre. Its tone reminds me a little of Reefer Madness or Robert Downey Sr.'s Putney Swope (another film I still need to watch).

[featherxquill]

Interesting question. I suppose it would depend on the pervading life circumstances and interests, and the voting laws, in a given country. I mean, I don't know much about Argentina, but if there is considerable interest among young people in politics, or there are large numbers of 16-18 year-olds working and living independent of their parents, then absolutely extending the right to vote to them is important.

In Australia, I would be probably be against the idea, if it ever came up, because voting is compulsory here (if you don't vote, they can fine you), and I honestly don't believe that the majority of 16 year-old Australians care in the least about politics, so there would likely be a whole lot of donkey voting or a lot of kids just blindly following their parents political views (which may well change by the time they're 18+, god I know mine did), and that wouldn't be a true representation of what the country wanted.

[juanoclock]

I'm a little apprehensive myself. There are high school kids who participate in debate teams and Model UN conferences who I've no doubt could handle the responsibilities that come with voting, and who would probably make more adult decisions than the adults. On the other hand, I would tend to hold with the position that school-age kids should devote their energy to learning and not to voting or doing other adult activities (for instance, working 9 to 5 in a factory).

Australia has a really interesting voting system, and I wish we would adopt it. In some areas, we do have the Australian-style instant voter runoff system where you rank your candidates in order of preference. I don't imagine that it's made Australia a utopia, but the process at least gets people the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate rather than feel obliged to select between the least of two evils.