I was interested to hear that Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reiterated Labours manifesto pledge to lower the voting age to 16.
I am in favor of this and if cannot happen soon enough but interested to know if this is something the US should consider?
Scotland and Wales allows 16 and 17 years to vote in parliamentary and local elections and like Starmer said the sky did not fall in.
What a stupid electorate that will make. 25 would be much better. At least let them leave home, pay some taxes and see the consequences of their votes.
American kids can affect American policy at 18, but cannot drink or smoke or gamble until the age of 21. Something is ass backwards here. The idea of letting someone vote who can’t even sign a legal contract is stupidity beyond recognition.
I saw this movie, Wild in the Streets.
It doesn’t end well for those who wanted the change.
Completely agree! If anything I would support moving the voting age up as well.
Why stop at 16? I would just prefer kids not vote. I agree with the posts prior to mine.
Starmer is a fool. The UK is on the wrong path with him in charge.
I don’t really care what age is chosen.
But it needs to be the same age for everything.
Either you’re an adult and have all your rights, or you’re not and shouldn’t have any of them.
It needs to be the same for everything and it needs to match the age at which they could be drafted if the levee on masse is declared. In the US that is 18. So the voting age should stay at 18. If by some chance they pass a new selective service bill that includes 16 year olds, then the voting age should be lowered to match.
Only issue I have with that is that selective service would need to be raised to match it. It’s immoral, imo, to potentially force people to go the war but they can’t even vote for the politicians who would send them there. That’s part of the reason the voting age was lowered to 18 in the first place; it used to be 21 but 18 year old guys were getting sent to Vietnam with no way to vote for or against eh guys who were sending them to that god forsaken place.
Now with my opinion noted, I will say that 16 year olds are universally stupid and only care about trying to get laid. We’ve all been there once. I wouldn’t trust my 16 year old self with the power of the vote.
So yeah this entire idea by the UK is kind of stupid in my opinion.
Thanks for the replies, if its such a bad idea how come Scotland and Wales have not ended up all Mad Max?
I suspected the majority here would be agsinst it but then again on this forum we have individuals who think voting should be restricted to property owners or pass some idiotic test
No I’m very much against litmus tests of any kind. That reeks of that Active-Passive citizen nonsense the French tried in 1792. And that ended up being one of the causes of so many people getting their heads chopped off a year later. It radicalized the Sans Culottes (who had their ability to vote essentially vaporized) who then decided they were going to show everyone that they were not passive citizens at all.
For me, it’s the age of majority (which should match the age of selective service or the age of conscription) and verified citizenship. If those two things are good, then no other requirements are needed or even valid to me.
Here is question I want to ask…is it OK for 30 year old to have sex with 16 year old? Do you libs approve of this?
Not a lib but absolutely not. The 16 year old is beneath the age of majority and is mentally immature.
So they frankly shouldn’t be voting either in my opinion.
Are you also in favor of 16 and 17 year old KIDS to be able to join the military without parental consent?
If you are in favor of giving them the right to vote it stands to reason you favor allowing them to do everything a 18 year old can do currently. Including getting married, buying a rifle or shotgun, enter into financial contracts, etc.
That’s one of the stupidest things I have heard. 16 and 17 yr-olds don’t know ■■■■about anything … although they pretty much all think they do. If you want to improve the quality of the voter, the minimum age ought to be raised to 21 … or better yet, 25.
If you give children the right to vote, you then need to declare them accountable only as adults for any criminality they engage in. If you don’t think they are mature enough as a group to be held accountable as adults, then don’t give them adult rights.
18 is a really good mandatory age for EVERYTHING.
from gun ownership to voting to drinking to gambling.
EVERYTHING.
Allan
Nonsense. Most 18 yr-olds don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to making important decisions. Why do you think the Constitution requires a Representative to be 25 and a Senator 30? And those rules were established when 15 and 16 yr-olds were getting married, working regular jobs and joining armies and going to sea. Kids today are pathetic compared to them.
