[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] "It’s time to lower the voting age in Oregon and to give our young people a chance to participate in the ballot, about their decisions that affect their homes, their clean air, their future, their schools and as we’ve seen, their very lives," Fagan said.Why? I thought adults were supposed to make decisions about such things?
The state senator pointed to the young activists who became engaged after the Parkland shooting in Florida, which left 17 people dead. They proved young people are active and should have a right to vote, Fagan said.
The fact that they were active doesn't mean their reactions were correct. Monkeys are very active.
Several teenagers spoke in favor of the measure alongside Fagan on Monday at the Capitol.
They were being "active," natch.
"Why can I drive like an adult, pay taxes like an adult, have an abortion like an adult, be charged and sentenced like an adult, but I can’t vote like an adult?" asked Christine Bynum, a student at La Salle High School.
In some states you can't drive like an adult at sixteen; there are restrictions, such as Cinderella licenses. In the ones where you can, you pay increased insurance rates commensurate with the increased rates at which you make poor decisions. You can still be claimed as a dependent for taxes like an adult. You're not allowed to sign contracts or to own property. There's a separate juvenile court system that theoretically only kicks the most egregious butt holes into the adult system. Having an abortion is your own damned business, but the fact that you might need one at age sixteen doesn't say much for your good sense.
"We’re experts of our own experiences," said Connor Gabor.
That's a statement with no meaning at all. The child probably heard somebody say that in a movie.
People are being sexually assaulted in their schools, Gabor said.
By teenagers.
People are being shot. Yet, they can’t vote for school board members or politicians, he said.
Neither can the shooters, can they?
Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr., R-Grants Pass, said 16-years-old is too young to vote.
Thank you for that thundering statement of the obvious.
"... (They) are too young to enlist in the military, too young to own firearms, too young to own property, too young to enter into legal contracts, and too young to get married. But they are old enough to vote? People are not legally considered adults in this country until they are 18 years old, and I believe they shouldn’t be able to vote until then either. This is nothing more than an attempt to expand the voter rolls to sway elections," he said.