Opinion of Saira Blair -- 18 year old delegate-elect from West Virginia

[Indy Texas]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/11/04/west-virginia-elects-americas-youngest-state-lawmaker/

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While she is in the lower house, her father Craig Blair will be in the State Senate.

[Goldwater]

FF

[H. Ross Peron]

Other than her age, she's a generic Tea Party legislator. I voted accordingly.

[NewYorkExpress]

There is a minimum age for these positions, right?

[Indy Texas]

There is a minimum age for these positions, right?

Given the short shelf-life of the typical Appalachian and the fact that her single partial semester of college makes her an erudite scholar by Mountaineer standards, I see no problem here.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Daddy bought her a seat. HP, of course.

[SWE]

There is a minimum age for these positions, right?

Yes, and in most states it's 18

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

She seems terrifying.

[Modernity has failed us]

Fiscal conservative = HP

[Oakvale]

Politician under 40 = sociopathic monster, politician under 20 = should be sent to prison to protect the public.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

I am not enamored of her, of course.  [Edit made by Torie. That term you used as a disparaging adjective for females, is not acceptable. Thanks.]

Massive HP.  

[Paul Kemp]

deleted by Torie

...

[traininthedistance]

HP of course, but some of these comments are really uncalled for.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

She's a politician, she's an active member of a political family, and her views are terrible. Her donation of $4k to her campaign also raises questions about corruption.

Still, I'm tempted to vote FF just to spite her sexist, classist, ageist critics. The reactions that she's caused are, as someone noted the last time she came up on this forum, surreal.

the poor rich people

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Strange that a forum that stringently censors curse words is fine with casual misogynistic slurs...

I wouldn't want to be exposed to the world of politics at that age, but, eh, at least it's better than a hundred old white guys (even if she is in the bad guy party)

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

FF.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Obviously very young politicians are slightly scary, but, the fyck guys? The fyck?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

HP of course, but some of these comments are really uncalled for.

Yea, it was.  I was mad.  Apologies.  She's still vile but we'll go with "aristocrat" instead.

[Rooney]

She is a freedom fighter. The more young people who get involved in the political process the better. I wish her the best.

[Rockefeller GOP]

She is a freedom fighter. The more young people who get involved in the political process the better. I wish her the best.

This.  I don't agree with her on everything, but it's cool.

[Consciously Unconscious]

FF.  Though any young person that is willing to stay in WV, hmm... Not quite sure why someone would want to stay there. 

[Beet]

Originally voted HP, but on second thought a FF for being a young person involved in politics, even though I probably disagree with her on pretty much everything. When your dad is a state legislator, a Republican, and you're running in West Virginia, a state that Obama unfortunately abandoned from day 1, it's not surprising. Frankly, I wish this sort of thing was easier in urban areas- I suspect there would be much tougher barriers to entry for an 18-year old to get elected to something in NYC, for example, and that is unfortunate.

[Hash]

Young people in politics, especially when they're teenagers, are pretty universally terrible and her generic far-right views make her even more horrible, but there's obviously no reason to refer to her using vile misogynistic slurs. But then again, it's the Atlas Forum.

[Beet]

Young people in politics, especially when they're teenagers, are pretty universally terrible

Why is it terrible? Young people are a being a traditionally disenfranchised group. They don't see politicians addressing them or their issues. They don't feel cared about or efficacious in the system. So they don't vote. They get screwed over as a result (see education costs, the reversal of elder vs. youth poverty in the past 40 years). At a systemic level this hurts progressives more than conservatives, especially as Millennials tend to be more Democratic at the moment. Also, I'm not at all convinced being young makes you less politically intelligent per se, compared to an equally inexperienced / educated older person.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

What Nix said, except for the 'classist' part, which I don't get.