I am wondering to myself today after coming to a disturbing conclusion, that I have no clue what the canidates stand for, Should an 18 year old be allowed to vote?
I was talking to a democratic friend of mine and I came to the conclusion that I only knew four of the people running for president, Clinton, Obama, Guiliani, and Romney and I also realized that I had no idea who was a republican or a democrat and what any of their view points or stands were!
I've also talked to many of my friends who have no clue either.
There is a website actively campaigning to lower the voting age to 16 in Florida!! I'm sorry but being 16 or 18 does not make you responsible or for another fact an adult who is capable of picking the next person who could quite possibly run our country for a term. This is there, I guess you would call it a mission statement....
- 16 and 17 year olds pay taxes just like everyone else; why should there be taxation without representation?
- At 16, one can have a driver's license and own a car. Is voting more dangerous or difficult?
- "The League of Women Voters believes that every citizen should be protected in the right to vote." How can we justify age discrimination by not allowing 16 and 17 year old citizens the right to vote?
- "The League of Women Voters believes that democratic government depends upon the informed and active participation of its citizens.."
- The courts are frequently recognizing teenagers as adults.
They also have a petition you can sign on the website!! They also have a petition posted for this...
Each Legislator must take the tenth grade Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) during the first year they are elected and continue to take the exam each year until such time as they have received a passing grade.
Things are just getting ridiculous! All these crazy ideas floating around, change the voting age, legislators need to take the FCAT, why? So we can have revenge on them for creating the test in the first place or is it to prove how ridiculous that test is and that if the people who made it up can't pass it, why should florida students?
First of all, lowering the voting age to sixteen would be ridiculous, many of those kids would be so confused that they'd vote for anyone without reasonable justification and also there's the whole "Vote like your friends do" that canidates would most likely say at least once in a speech or on a ad campaign.
Also, kids like me, who have no clue about the canidates could be the ones who are deciding who is going to be running our country for the next few years? In my opinion it is ridiculous.
The website is http://www.voteat16.com/
I am going to be eligible to vote in 2008 and I have no idea who believes and stands for what I do, yet alone who I trust to run our country, it's a lot of faith and responsibility put onto someone who stills get allowance every week for cleaning their room.
By the way, can anyone tell me what each canidates stand or at least their political party is?!?!?! I just don't know how to research this one, it keeps coming up with useless information, thanks. =)
Thanks for Listening =) This has been blogging with Caity =) Have a Great Day =)
"aloud" should be "allowed"! =P
okay. you've made a couple good points but i disagree with you...yeah, there are gonna be kids that are going to be stupid and just vote the way their friends vote, etc, etc....but there are a lot of adults that do that too! (women used to be expected to vote with their husbands) also, these days kids are becoming politically and socially conscious at a younger and younger age...i was 17 in the 2004 election and turned 18 a month after the inauguration, so i missed the vote by a few months, but i definitely consider myself educated enough to make a responsible decision.
frankly, i also think lowering the voting age won't make a huge difference because a lot of people don't vote as it is, and most of the time it's out of laziness. speaking from personal experience (haha) teenagers are some of the laziest people i know. unless someone really cares about the issues at hand, i doubt they'd really turn out the vote, especially not enough to really affect a campaign.
finally, as for the candidates--you should look up the youtube debates! they did democratic and republican (although i don't know if the republican ones are up yet, i haven't watched) debates, with the candidates being asked questions directly by viewers, and all of the responses are on youtube's website. that way you can learn about the candidates and where they stand on important issues. =)
also, i know you're not a huge myspace fan, but most of the candidates have their own myspace pages in order to reach out to a broader support base, so if you find a candidate you like you can look him (or her, finally!) up on myspace and see what you can find.
--stacie
I agree with Stacie on this one. Although you do have some valid points about things like peer pressure and whatnot, I knew a lot of people when I was in high school that were glued to the Presidential races.
Also, does age really have anything to do with the fact that you don't know who's in the runnings? Or is it just that you haven't done very much (if any) research on the matter? Your vote's not going to be any more informed if you're 60 rather than 16 if you don't do any research.
18 year olds can do just as much research as a 40 year old on the various candidates, as dragonwolf mentioned, so I also agree with Stacie completely. The only difference will be of experience...but that's a good thing, no? =)
I understand your point and it is a good one, but not all people who are 16 and 17 are as mature as say some of the people our age.
Caity =)
And not all people who are "our age" (whatever you consider that to be) are as mature as someone who's 16 or 17.
Republicans- Gulianni, Mit Romney, Jon McCain, Fred Thompson (Although he's not officially running), Ron Paul
Democrats- Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinivich
There are a bunch of others, but I don't know their names. There's one on the tip of my tounge, but it keeps escaping me.
"Every man makes a god of his own desire."
-Virgil
For democrats there's also Gravel, Richardson, Dodd, and Joe Biden who I'm personally rooting for!
As for republicans there's Mike Huckabee and I think some others I'm forgetting as well.
And it's kucinich ;)
As for the 18 year old to vote idea maybe it's just my state but we get taught Government our senior year which does seem to help to make more informed decisions
`lacey
There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth...
Biden, that was who I was forgetting.
The thing in this election is that there's a huge amount of candidates.
"Every man makes a god of his own desire."
-Virgil
Thanks a lot, I was having a hard time. =)
Caity =)
You give absolutley no credit to minors. A 16 year old can probably do MORE research than a 60 year old, because they can work the internet better. But what is all this about minors being too confused to vote? Do minors have a smaller brain, are they incapable of handling the pressure of pulling a stick down? That was the exact same kind of logic used to prevent blacks and women from voting for hundreds of years.
This is my first year voting and I have done research, registered to vote, and have a favorite canidate in mind. Its not challenging and if a 17 year old wanted to do the same thing, I don't know why we dont let him.
Silent enim leges inter arma
Hey, if you know at least the names of four of the peple running, you're doing better than a heck of a lot of folks twice your age.
I definitely believe that 18 should be allowed to vote should they decide to exercise that right. I have noticed that many of those 18 year olds that do decide to vote do so incredibly responsibly (oftentimes more responsibily than veteran voters who vote for a party or a single issue versus the candidate and what he/she stands for). We have tendency to give far less credit to youth than what they deserve.
-----
Fallon
"It is never too late to give up your prejudices." Henry David Thoreau
"In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you've heard the other side." Euripides
-----
http://www.progressiveu.org/190000-literacy-in-america
This is a thing that I wrote a while back but i think it has the same point. I totally agree with you in that youngins should not be voting...of course if they could I bet it would force teachers and parents to teach there kids, that is if they know how to vote them selves.
I do not htink that having the kids vote will affect much except give smart youngsters a chance and the dumb ones an intrest...eh just check out the link I am sure it is better then this comment.
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
Thank you all for reading and commenting, and sharing your views, I like the way you almost all disagree with what I said, it is a challenge and it is quite intriguing. Thank you to all of you who told me the canidates parties. I realize that some minors are mature enough, but there is a big majority that is not, at least in my opinion.
Caity =)
There are some 18 year olds that can't quite get the "you've gotta find out as much as you can before making the choice" and there are others, like myself, that take the time to study each candidate, and make a choice based on overall "better than the rest of them"-edness. As it stands, I am in favor of Ron Paul (R-TX).
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
i'm pretty left wing, and even i'm somewhat of a ron paul fan. the guy's just so not-your-typical-politician that it's amazing.
that, and the fact that he wants to get rid of the IRS is really, really funny.
--stacie
You know, any man that can win over the entire population of the internet gets my vote.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
Very good points from both Stacie and Nicholas, =)
Caity =)
Absolutely! And it USED to be that way. Until they started taking people's rights away from them. GREAT BLOG!
They do make valid points, it is quite intriguing =)
Caity =)
You are being very naive about this. If you don't know anything about the candidates, you should NOT vote. Being a certain age doesn't mean you have to vote; it just means you're allowed. There are plenty of teenagers who know a lot about politics and pay attention; why should we be denied the right to vote just because a lot of others pay no attention? I'm going to be eligible to vote in the 2008 election as well, and I'm going to take it seriously and responsibly.
Age doesn't make you ready to vote ever. Most adults vote by political party and don't know anything about politics whatsoever.
If you want to make an educated vote, visit the candidates' campaign websites, and you can find out anything you need to know about who stands for what. It's very simple.
Thank you, in hopes of not being to awfully rude, i have no response, thank you for your comment =) Caity =)
i think 18 year olds should be able to vote, its your own fault that you dont know what they stand for. its not cause you are 18. I knew what candidates stood for when i was 16 during the last election... it just depends on the person. There are people who are 40 that doesnt know anything about that
Also, the people that dont know anything about the election wont vote anyways. So if they allowed 16 year olds vote, not that many people would do it. I know i would of when i was 16 cause i looked into alot of things..
You shouldn't be allowed to vote because most 18 year olds dont know what is going on in the world. Most don't watch the news, Some might vote for who their friends or for who their parents are voting for. They won't take it seriosly.
**baller10**
why should she give credibility to minors? funny the question came up, "do minors have smaller brains that adults" because actually they do! I am studying psychology, specifically child development, and your brain is not fully developed until you are around 20 years of age, that is why there are restricting laws based solely on age! do some research before you make such an ignorant statement again!
Most of American's really are not educated on politics. Even for myself, who follows politics rather closely, there are literally tons of politicians on our local ballot who I know nothing about. I usually just go with voting party lines if I don't know what they stand for.
But to me, I believe that you should only be allowed to vote if you meet the criteria.
1) If you're on welfare, you can't vote - because your vote can be bought
2) If you're mentally retarded, you can't vote - because of the obvious
3) If you can't read or speak English, you can't vote - because you don't respect our country enough to function in it.
4) If you are here illegally, you can't vote -
No 16 year olds should not be aloud to vote.
i'm sorry but if your an obama fan then why would vote for him? and it should be a laginament reason not an "Because he's cool."
That's not an apropriate in 1732 the constitution was changed to given the voting right to 18 year olds becuase the voting status was going down hill.
In order to save voting 18year olds were given the right to vote so voting would increase, But voting was origanlly came to be to show we were independent and show we were free.so.... yea.
No 16 year olds should not be aloud to vote.
i'm sorry but if your an obama fan then why would vote for him? and it should be a laginament reason not an "Because he's cool."
That's not an apropriate in 1732 the constitution was changed to given the voting right to 18 year olds becuase the voting status was going down hill.
In order to save voting 18year olds were given the right to vote so voting would increase, But voting was origanlly came to be to show we were independent and show we were free.so.... yea.
I ment 1972 not 1732