I Dream Awake

We should hasten the enfranchisement of this generation, born between 1980 and 1995, by lowering the voting age to 16.Age thresholds are meant to bring an impartial data point to bear on insoluble moral questions: who can be legally executed, who can die in Iraq, who can operate the meat cutter at the local sub shop. But in a time when both youth and age are being extended, these dividing lines are increasingly inadequate.

Generation Debt: What Can Young People Do?

This is the best youth rights favoring op-ed I’ve read in a while. That it’s in the NY Times makes reading it all the better. Their readership will have a new thought or ten to chew on.

[I wonder if anyone has done a study on whether quality of writing is assumed to go up just because of where something is published; like the one about expensive wine.]

While I don’t agree in principle with testing based or fractional rights, if the only pre-req for voting at 16 is passing a test no more difficult than the standard set for U.S. citizenship then I’d gladly support it. Same as with the responsible drinking classes and special id proposed by Choose Responsibility. I do favor increased emphasis on civics education and drinking awareness, but I’d rather we lowered the drinking and voting ages because they are worthwhile goals in their own right, rather than something we must impose conditions on for Americans under 21 or 18. Still, rights with a very small asterisk are usually better than no rights at all.