Oh, c'mon, not Brandon Griggs again.
Alright, the author seems to think that Oregon is on to something by considering changing the minimum voting age to 16. If Griggs' rationale was based on a bigger picture concept like kids mature faster these days, or kids should be considered adults at 16, I would listen to his argument. But what Griggs and the Left are trying to do today is to simply attempt to cull more Democrat voters by any means possible. It's not just my opinion, according to the Pew Research Center....
Young people tend to lean left. According to the graph above, young people lean way left in a 2-1 margin over their Grandparents, and inversely, the Grandparents lean way right in a 2-1 margin over their Grandchildren.
Griggs, again, is trying to set an agenda rather than report an agenda. But his incompetence has afforded me an opportunity to write about something that's been bothering me for a while now. When are you an adult?
Could I have made an educated vote when I was 16 years old? I think you know by now that I was fairly in tune with the news and I probably could have made an informed decision. The problem is, maybe 2 in 10 of my friends at that age could have been informed enough to:
A. Do their homework.
B. Process the issues.
C. Then actually drive to precinct and cast a vote on Election Day.
As a Libertarian leaning publication, we believe there should be a flat age as to when you are an adult. We know there are exceptions to every rule, but as a society there should be 2, and only 2, benchmarks.
Adult at 18
You own your likeness. Colleges or corporate entities cannot stop you from making money off of your own image or brand.
You can join the armed service of your choice.
You can buy alcohol.
You can smoke.
You can consent to all consensual sexual relations.
You can get married.
You can vote.
The world is your oyster.
Practice Adult at 16
You can drive.
You can get a job. (For those under 16, that means no more Hollywood kids, no more 13 year old farm hands, and, sorry fast food, you're going to have to figure something else out.)
You can consent to sexual relations with other young adults (16 to 21.)
You can watch an Rated R movie or play a Rated M video game.
You can be tried as an adult for violent crimes deemed serious by community standards.
As a reader, you can come up with lots of exceptions to the rules above. "What? My Great-Grandpa was a decorated World War II Veteran at 13, you should be able join the army at 16." And my reply to that is simple. When I was a kid, the white trash kids down the block were smoking at 12. I watched Daryle and Ray smoke. I knew they could physically do it, but as a society, is it a good idea to let 6th graders smoke? You could counter, "apples and oranges, you should never smoke." Okay, but smoking is legal in America. We can argue all day about what should or shouldn't be legal. I'm sure people with 4 divorces think you shouldn't be able to get married until 25. What I'm saying is that there should be a flat age at which you are considered an adult. If you want to debate that age should be 21, 17, fine, we can debate that.
But when you don't have a flat age, then you get absurd examples like you can die for your country at 20, but you can't buy alcohol.
So if Brandon Griggs agrees that you should be allowed to join the army, drink alcohol, smoke, own a handgun, etc. all at the age of 16, then that's fine, 16 is the voting age and that's the line of being an adult that we all agree upon.
(I have a feeling Griggs does not agree.)
If you just want 16 year olds to vote just so your team can "win"....
I guess you can go write for CNN.