Post
by glennds » Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:19 am
Xan,
I've been thinking about this.
Rather than agree to disagree, I have an idea on where we might get together in terms of voting age.
It seems to me your root objection is that a young (18-20 year old) voter is not knowledgeable or qualified enough to vote responsibly.
Rather than a state or Federal government attaching conditions or mandates like compelling military service in order to "earn" the opportunity to vote, maybe the states could play a bigger part in cultivating a knowledgeable voting public.
Speaking from experience with my own kids, in my state the entire focus in K-12 has become STEM curriculum. The majority of non-STEM education has dropped by the wayside. This is because the standardized tests by which they grade and evaluate schools are almost totally based on STEM and as the saying goes, what gets rewarded gets done. So guess what? Civics, government, a lot of Social Studies have disappeared.
So my proposal - bring back (or give greater importance to) Civics and Government into the curriculum, with the idea being that by high school graduation time, a student has at least had exposure to the basic system and history of government, functioning of the branches, an understanding of the electoral process and their role in it, the distinction between Municipal, County, State and Federal government and how they interact with each other. If this knowledge was thought of as a basic skill, necessary to being a functioning citizen in society, it would be a step toward more rational and informed voting (for all BTW, not just those under 21).