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GA2019 is Almost Here
I’ll Be in Canada
For Further Consideration
In my post yesterday, Heads I Win Tails You Lose, I discussed the Dems’ proposal that we lower the voting age to 16… For further consideration of that proposal, I give you exhibit A as to why this is a bad idea.
Thoughts on reading For Further Consideration:
But I can see some 21 year old males doing something like that too.
Well, I didn’t have a skateboard when I was 16, but….. Uh, maybe I should just stop there.
Be careful, someone’s going to use this as a pretext for dis-enfranchising males.
Did you notice the kid in the black shirt risking his own safety to try and smother the flames? I mean, really, think of these adventures are as character development exercises.
If you want an argument for a voting age of 16, here you go: If you can work and pay taxes, then you should have a say in how those taxes are spent.
Of course that isn’t what the blue team has in mind. They want 16 year olds voting because it means more D votes. The red team opposes it for exactly the same reason. No one actually cares about the principles.
I’d tweak that to be, “If you DO work and pay taxes…” :)
That’s an argument for infants with trust funds to have the vote.
Or, we’ll just let the parents of those infants bribe their way into Harvard.
I think the Team Blue leadership is getting ahead of the base on this one. If you are a California sixteen-year-old, you can’t consent to sexual activity, work more than four hours on a school day, do any job remotely considered hazardous, buy a lottery ticket, enter a casino, smoke (tobacco or weed), or drink alcohol. In fact, you will be waiting two years for the first five, and five more years for the rest. But we’re thinking of letting you vote? What next, jury duty? This is clearly pandering because it’s not going to go anywhere. But the research… Read more »
But then no one accuses Team Blue of standing on principle or reason.
Jill Smith wrote:
This isn’t categorically true. Under the age of eighteen, a Californian can’t independently consent to marriage without parental (and court) approval, but, presumably, after securing the marriage, a sixteen-year-old’s personal consent is sufficient to lawfully consummate it.
Unfortunately, there’s going to be some “progressive” who will eventually flip things around to argue that if sixteen-year-olds are old enough to vote, then they are also old enough to give independent consent for tattoos, tobacco, legalized drugs, sex, porn, etc.
If you increased the vote to 20 you could still allow men to join the army at 18, but choose not to deploy them until they are 20.
Personally I think the voting age should be 30.
The only program I’m aware of that allows military members to be kept fully out of harm’s way for a full two years after enlistment is the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. I suppose Army members or Marines, maybe Airmen, could all be assigned stateside desk jobs for the year and half or so beyond boot camp and initial training, though that doesn’t seem very practical, nor is it fair to the older guys who have earned their combat badges and need a break, but you can’t have all those 18 and 19 year old sailors sitting around on shore eating… Read more »
Perhaps we don’t send as many people overseas, and as often. You can be in the army for a while without going into combat I believe.
The other issue is when do people stop voting? People with dementia stop driving, they probably should stop voting. And their children should not be voting “on their behalf.”
Does anyone know why voting age originally was 21? Why was that considered the age of majority, as opposed to, say 20? Either of those ages would have made more sense once upon a time than they do now. Since it seems fairly arbitrary anyway I see nothing wrong with amending voting age every few decades. Right now I’d set it at 25, or after three years of honorable volunteer military service, whichever comes first. Don’t hold your breath for anything like that though.
The attempt to conspire against the Constitution, to do an end run around the Electoral College, is a negative example of exercising the power of the lesser magistrate. Lesser magistrates should use their office to protect against tyranny from above, but of course it’s also possible for lesser magistrates to attempt to become local tyrants themselves. This principle relates directly to the linked documentary, Seattle Is Dying, because Seattle is an example where lesser magistrates are preventing sound laws from being enforced. We also see examples where lesser magistrates are refusing to enforce drug laws, or illegal immigration laws, or… Read more »
That tyranny of lesser magistrates is an important point. Whenever we, especially conservatives, speak against overbearing government we tend to have the national government in mind. However, where the rubber meets the road it is likely as not a state government, or even more so a city or county government that is burdening us with requirements and restrictions..and costs. That case in point – the Illinois pension disaster, which is part, but not all, the reason Illinois property taxes are so outrageous. The Federal government didn’t do that to Illinoisans. It isn’t the Federal government that imposes zoning restrictions or… Read more »