Then check out Ann Coulter's latest: REPEAL THE 26TH AMENDMENT!... (Updated below)
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Adopted in 1971 at the tail end of the Worst Generation's anti-war protests, the argument for allowing children to vote was that 18-year-olds could drink and be conscripted into the military, so they ought to be allowed to vote.
But 18-year-olds aren't allowed to drink anymore. We no longer have a draft.
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Having absolutely no idea what makes their precious cars run, by the way, young voters are the most likely to oppose offshore drilling.
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Those of you who have made it to age 26 without dying in a stupid drinking game -- and I think congratulations are in order, by the way -- understand how insane it is to allow young people to vote.
It would almost be tolerable if everyone under the age of 30 just admitted they voted for Obama because someone said to them, "C'mon, it's really cool! Everyone's doing it!"
Any more excerpts, and she'll be coming after me for copyright violations. So, check it out for yourselves; you wont be disappointed.
And, YES, I know (as does she) that actually making this happen (now that they have the vote) would make unscrambling an egg seem easy by comparison.
Still, one can dream. :-)
(Note - She doesn't put permalinks on her articles until they go into her archives, so that's where you will have to look for this if it's past Nov 17th).
UPDATE - 11 Nov 2010 22:45 CST - Lest some people take this too seriously, as I noted in a comment the likelihood of this actually happening is about comparable to the chances of me getting rich by having a suitcase full of untraceable money accidentally falling out of a drug-runner's airplane and landing close enough for me to grab it and run,
I suspect that Ann was having a bit of fun and venting at the same time, rather than being serious. As most of her critics have the sense of humor of a pet rock, I suspect they will dump on her really hard for this piece. I mean, How dare she?!!!
As long as we're daydreaming about how to get a more responsible electorate, I suggest reading Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers (absolutely nothing like the execrable movie that was made of it). Now, that would really be dreaming. :-)
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"When faced with a problem you do not understand,
do any part of it you do understand; then look at it again."
~(Robert A. Heinlein - "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress")do any part of it you do understand; then look at it again."
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8 comments:
Better yet, how about one vote per $100 in personal income tax paid. No worky = no votey.
I would rather have an industrious 18 year old voting than a 35 year old welfare leech.
Well, lets see, at 18 years old Americans are allowed to:
-Vote
-Gamble
-Own firearms
-Get drafted, handed a firearm, and ordered (on pain of imprisonment) to kill someone with it.
-Get married.
-Enter into legal contracts.
-Operate motor vehicles.
-Have adult criminal liability, etc.
To me this seems like a straightforward argument to LOWERING the drinking age, not raising the voting age.
Either you ARE an adult when you are 18, or you are NOT an adult.
Not incidentally, I believe the artificially elevated drinking age of 21 all by itself is responsible for much of the mischief incurred by underage drinkers, but that's a whole other subject in and of itself.
21 is far too young. I've long favored 30 as the entry level for voting, with an exemption for military service.
Make it 31 and you have a deal.
To Anonymous # 2, re:
-Get drafted, handed a firearm, and ordered (on pain of imprisonment) to kill someone with it.
As Ann noted in her article, We no longer have a draft. No one's been drafted in over 35 years now.
To All...
As the likelihood of this actually happening is about comparable to the chances of me getting rich by having a suitcase full of untraceable money accidentally falling out of a drug-runner's airplane and landing close enough for me to grab it and run, I suspect that Ann was having a bit of fun and venting at the same time, rather than being serious.
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I can see the frustration that can fuel this argument with the stupidity of as you put it 'the Worst Generation' (definitely some truth to that, and from mine as well,) but I'd be curious to see what a polling of young folks from a lot of Midwestern and rural communities to include friends of mine would say. There's plenty of fellows I know that were raised with some common sense and will tend to have a strong conservative lean to their votes. Many fellows I've known have voted since they turned 18, and I guarantee none of my friends voted for the likes of Obamessiah.
Now want a real firestorm? Re-instate the rule that you have to be a property owner to vote, you might have something there ;) (If you can vote to raise someone's taxes that you don't pay any yourself, that's a real travesty in my humble opinion.)
After reading Ann's full article, if it's true that 18-24 yr. olds broke for Obama by 19 points (I still question who's polling them and where because I don't recall any pollsters anywhere in my neighborhoo,) but if that's true, with a military service exemption, I would be for. Sigh. There really are millions of stupid Americans.
Zyph:
of as you put it 'the Worst Generation'
It was Ann that put it that way, although I admit to agreeing.
Re-instate the rule that you have to be a property owner to vote, you might have something there ;)
In the Heinlein novel I recommended in the Update, the franchise (Right to vote) was something that had to be earned, not given to you merely because you were born.
There really are millions of stupid Americans.
Yup!
But, in the 18-24 range, I suspect it is ignorance more than stupidity.
I've always viewed ignorance as simply lack of information, whereas stupidity consists of going ahead and doing something when you damned well (or should) know better.
In 1962, I was in the USAF, newly stationed at Goodfellow AFB outside of San Angelo, Texas. One weekend, I went with three other Airmen down to Del Rio and across the border into Villa Acuña (now Ciudad Acuña) to check out "boystown" (the local red light district) and to buy and bring back cheap duty-free booze.
A little background necessary for what follows: we were in the United States Air Force Security Service (now the Electronic Security Arm, I think); one of the spook shops that gets its people by selecting from the top 2%, based on the battery of tests given to enlistees.
I am saying our little bunch was very sharp (including, modestly, yours truly :-).
To bring that booze back over the border, you had to be 21, and not one of us had reached that exalted age. So, we cleverly shoved the bottles under the seats as we approached the border crossing.
We had noticed that the Customs guards and Border Patrolmen were just waving through car after car of families that had come over to watch the bullfights and indulge in some very cheap shopping.
So, this bunch of ultra-smart Airmen (including myself) would later actually conjure up conspiracy theories, about informants in the liquor stores, to explain the mystery of why a guard takes one look at this old Mercury pulling up with a Goodfellow AFB sticker on the windshield, occupied by four young punks sporting military haircuts, and waves us right over.
"Do you gentlemen have anything to declare"
"No Sir."
"Right! Step out of the car please."
And they go straight to our hiding place and pull it out.
Not having enough to pay the fine, so help me, I actually asked, "Can I just leave it?"
To which one of the Patrolmen (probably really straining to keep a straight face) replied, "I've got news for you son, you are going to leave it."
Thankfully, one of the others was able to loan me enough handle the fine.
You see, being extremely smart and not having a lick of sense are not necessarily contradictory.
The missing ingredient was experience; we had yet to be forged on the anvil of reality.
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