It would seem contradictory to argue that adult children should be able to stay on their parent’s insurance until they are 26 years-old but should be able to vote at 16 or choose their “gender” as a toddler.
With a presidential election on the horizon, I guess the question I have is this: should we be rethinking at what point a person reaches the age of majority?
The age of majority is the age at which an individual will be legally considered an adult and have full legal rights and responsibilities, it is a concept that has been around for a very long time, rooted (I think) in European law dating back to the 9th or 10th century.
The original ratified form of the U.S. Constitution contained no definition of who could vote and who was restricted from doing so other than they be a citizen and it was generally accepted in most states, only non-Negro men with real property-usually of at least 50 acres of land or sufficient wealth for taxation were permitted to vote. Un-propertied men, women and slaves were denied the franchise of voting.
Over the succeeding years, though the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the right to vote was extended to every citizen over the age of 18 (with the 26th Amendment). Doing so, all voters are assumed to be equal.
There was a reason the original act of voting was restricted to men, property owners and those with sufficient wealth to be taxed. As common to the culture at the time, men were more likely to be formally educated and if they had property and wealth enough to pay the taxes, it was felt those who pay the bills should have a say in how their tax dollars were spent.
There is a danger to the American Republic posed by what was deemed the “low information voter” and there can be little doubt a vote cast in ignorance is a tool to be manipulated by those interested in disinformation (don’t believe me, just spend five minutes on Twitter).
How to end this danger is a matter of delicate debate.
What should be done?
Should:
The age of majority of the voting age be increased? If so, to what level – 26 to match Obamacare? If you are too immature to have your own job and insurance, are you too immature to vote?
A citizen be required to pay taxes before being allowed to vote and if so, how much tax liability is enough? Should a non-taxpayer be allowed to decide on matters of government largess and spending for which only they pay?
A natural born citizen be required to take and pass the same citizenship test that is administered to naturalized citizens before being allowed to vote? If you can’t pass a basic civics test to prove you know how government works, should you be allowed to control it with your vote?
A citizen be required to pass a current events test before being allowed to go to the polls? If you know nothing about the challenges we face as a nation, should you be allowed to put people in office who are going to act on these challenges?
Voting be a right of every citizen regardless of level of comprehension of how the electoral system works and what the important issues of the day are?
It be all of the above?
I know it sounds discriminatory but I do not think every citizen is capable of the level of understanding of the candidates, the issues and our system of governance to cast an informed, effective vote at the national level. The level of overall ignorance of basic reality of many segments of our population is stunning and one has to assume the rate of ignorance of domestic and international politics is even greater.
Recent elections indicate people are willing to vote based on emotion, race, slick marketing, propaganda, or simple ignorance of the real issues. We have seen the emerging power of the “Free Sh*t Army”, people who were voting for the person and party based on getting “stuff”, those groups essentially using promises of taxpayer funded government largess to buy votes.
It hasn’t been that long ago a poll found nearly half of all Americans say astrology, the study of celestial bodies’ purported influence on human behavior and worldly events, is either “very scientific” or “sort of scientific.”
So, you tell me if these people should be allowed to elect a president and a government and decide on major policy issues.
I don’t think so.
I’m sorry to admit it but I do believe there is such a thing as being too dumb to vote.
With the growing disinformation and no trusted sources. It is nearly impossible to be an informed voter. The older I get the more skeptical I become about the world.
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
- Winston Churchill