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What do you think the voting age should be? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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About two years ago now, I was sitting on a bench in Central Park writing my initial thoughts on what I didn't know then but would come to know as Youth Rights.

I don't think I'll ever remember why she did, but about halfway through the day Greta Thunberg came to mind, and I looked up the voting age in Sweden. And my blood boiled in a way I've never experienced in my entire life.

16 years old and one of the most famous and recognizable political activists in the world. 16 years old giving a confident, impassioned, admonishing speech to the fucking UN. 16 years old with no legal right to a voice in her country. No voice to vote for the policies she believed in or the people who might enact them.

My writing, already vitriolic to a fault, managed to become even moreso but with the topic abruptly switched to voting. For the first time in my life, I considered where I'd place the voting age if I could do so unilaterally. Not long into considering it I had a thought that I wrote down immediately, a question I've asked well over 100 times at this point with no substantial answer:

When is it reasonable to say to a person, 'If you're not at least this old, then I don't give a fuck what you think'?

And from the moment I had that thought, I have been unable to place the voting age.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you're going to be eighteen during the person you vote for's term you should be able to vote.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

I've had this exact same thought in response to the logic that the voting age was lowered to 18 during Vietnam so that 18yos could vote for a president who might draft them. But that logic extends to 14yos who may end up being drafted at 18 during the president's term.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's an interesting take but with our term lengths that means a 15y can vote for president and senator but can't vote for a house rep.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Yes, that's exactly what it means.