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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
I would think you give teenagers too much credit. As politically knowledgable as I am and try to teach my kids, they don't care. They'd happily vote themselves a car, home, or free money if it meant that they could be lazy shits.
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Though it's painful to admit, you could have just as easily described most adults. Most adults don't care about politics. They'd happily vote themselves tax breaks, etc. if it meant they could be lazy. I do feel that assigning this description to minors alone is dishonest. Adults are very much like that, too.
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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
I have no faith in anyone under 18 unless they can personally show me some maturity. They may actually have it, but i'm not willing to give them the right to vote due to their peers.
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While I'd love to see more maturity from both adults and teenagers, the reality is that maturity isn't a prerequisite to vote. Just like intelligence isn't a prerequisite. Nor is morality. The right to vote is a shared right by all, leaving them the opportunity to vote as they please and for their own reasons. Many people voted for Bush because they thought he would protect them. All of my huffing and puffing couldn't prevent them from feeling this way, and despite all the evidence to the contrary they voted away. Whether you think that Bush won fair and square or not, no one can deny that the man was voted for by many, many people. Close to 50%, even. That communicates to me that voting is no longer something reasonable or mature, necessarily.