I LOVE that West Wing episode. A group of kids get shuffled around the white house, not important, ignored. The leader of his school group gets to ask a question to President Bartlet after impressing a staffer.
"Do you think the budget deficit is especially unfair to younger Americans?" -> " a follow up, do you think we'd have such a large deficit if children were allowed to vote?" Such a good use of debate.
I think it's worth debating whether to give teens the right to vote. In my mind at least to 13 and up - but it's capricious / hard to draw the line or come up with 'tests' that aren't flat out repeating our disgusting past treatment of Black Americans.
The West Wing episode [clip below] spells out some of the argument:
I miss the West Wing universe. Would be awesome to see a reboot optimistic show about getting things accomplished, showing a vision for how it's possible to tackle climate change and our other ailments. But move the show past today's progress (it does not treat women well/give them voice, stance on gay marriage etc).
An A or B in highschool level Social Studies (how your government works) sounds like a good baseline; but that course would have to be moved down to middle-school.
That was my first thought but there are so many potential pitfalls & problems.
What about learning disabled, disadvantaged, just having no access or poor school/lack of opportunity etc.
And what if you fail!? we can't deny the right to vote because you can't pass a test. That's what we did to black Americans.
though to be honest I'm the type that judge people who don't vote. I get mad when people say 'but it doesn't do anything' but they don't vote!!!
I think it should be mandatory it's the least you can do for our country. You don't have to vote for anyone can always write sponge bob or black it out as an F you to the system. Or better yet, work to elect people & pass measures that change the system!
You could just give them all the right to vote and rely on the fact that young people tend not to vote. It’s about the closest thing to a law of sociology that there is.
I'm totally into this. Picking the age line is hard. 13 year olds can have very different maturity. But I don't think that matters. Many adults have similar maturity haha ;)
I'm not so sure on vote rate. I hope we might be surprised! Even if not 20% would make a difference in policy. If it was part of curriculum and we tried to give students more confidence in their own power it could have generational change. A lot of social change has happened this way.
I work in politics and it very much disturbs me how often you hear that 'my vote doesn't have any power so why bother' it's self enforcing BS.
"Do you think the budget deficit is especially unfair to younger Americans?" -> " a follow up, do you think we'd have such a large deficit if children were allowed to vote?" Such a good use of debate.
I think it's worth debating whether to give teens the right to vote. In my mind at least to 13 and up - but it's capricious / hard to draw the line or come up with 'tests' that aren't flat out repeating our disgusting past treatment of Black Americans.
The West Wing episode [clip below] spells out some of the argument:
I miss the West Wing universe. Would be awesome to see a reboot optimistic show about getting things accomplished, showing a vision for how it's possible to tackle climate change and our other ailments. But move the show past today's progress (it does not treat women well/give them voice, stance on gay marriage etc).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSDxg-bDw1A