Blog Stage 8

On Tuesday August 11^th, one of my classmates wrote a piece titled, “Give Youth a Voice Expansion” as part of her blog called, “Young Minded Perspective of the U.S.” I found to relate and strongly agree with their argument on lowering the voting age in order to allow young adults (aged 16) to vote. The author makes several points to support this claim, such as stating that many kids at that age are currently learning about politics in classes and are already being exposed to adult situations, therefore making them more mature to vote than assumed by most adults.

As the author mentioned, she thought that kids at age sixteen are learning about the government, and are therefore informed enough to vote. I agree with this because at the age of sixteen most of us are learning about the government and the history of our country. Along with this, I know personally that in my history and English classes, the teachers have always made time for students to be able to discuss current news and issues and therefore be able to relate it to history or government. Often in these discussions, we would express our opinions over the President’s new bill or even the candidates of the past elections. By learning and engaging in civil discussions, as such, many sixteen year olds are mature and knowledgeable enough to go and vote.

Another point the author makes is the enthusiasm and energy teens carry to be part of politics. Being young comes with fresh energy ready to use anywhere. With this energy, many teens go out and be a part of protests and rallies and they fight for change even if they don’t get to vote for it. An example I have of this is that many of my friends were a part of protests against Trump and his recent actions regarding the LGBT community, Planned Parenthood and Trump in general. Although they were not allowed to vote against these bills or in the past elections, the effort put to be at least part of rallies like such shows the maturity and enthusiasm teens have.

With the knowledge learned in classes and then raw energy, I agree with the author, and believe that the voting age should be lowered to cater to the increased politically active teens.