Constitutionality of giving 16-year-olds the right to vote

[darklordoftech]

There are only a couple problems with giving 16 year olds the right to vote. One is that angus is against it, and since he made a post about his wet underwear, he's apparently cooler than I. Two is that 16 year olds aren't at the age of majority, so it would be a little inconsistent to say they're not even competent to govern themselves but are somehow competent to help govern the country. The whole point of high school is supposedly to prepare children to become citizens, so if they are already prepared before completing high school, what's the point?

That being said, I do think 16 year olds are capable of an adult understanding of politics and would be able to competently handle the task of voting, I just worry that it is inconsistent with how they are treated otherwise.

Actually, many states allow 16-year-olds to drop out of school and work full-time, so it's not like being under 18 means being in school and not paying taxes. Also, in many states 16 is the age of consent and is old enough to be tried as an adult.

[darklordoftech]

Not to be too cynical, but if 16- and 17-year olds could vote, it would be harder for state legislators to pass, say, restrictive driving rules or higher insurance rates for drivers younger than a certain age.

This is exactly why I want the voting age lowered. For too long have politicians, parents, schools, and moralizing busybodies taken rights away from people under 18. Our society seems to think that personhood is dependent upon being 18+. If the trend continues,I fear it won't be long until people are required to be in a school building 24/7 from the day they're born until their 18th birthday and anyone who tries to escape will get the death penalty. Once, teenagers hung out unsupervised, went to the mall, drank, smoked, and had sex without going to jail, and could skip school without being tracked down. But today, people under 18 are pretty much prisoners of adults. Something needs to change. We need to re-examine the way society views people under 18.