Earning the Vote

[Ravenshire]

My dad was born before Hitler invaded Poland. He's badly manipulated by political rhetoric in every election cycle. Age is no deterrent to poor decisions.

Our disagreement seems to be over how draconian our solutions would be. You would divest millions of the right to vote. That, to me, is a terrible thing.

Education and perceived intelligence (but especially education) is no magical preventative to making poor decisions. I know university graduates who voted Trump. No one is immune to political manipulation so trying to limit participation by that criteria, which is what education and intelligence testing really is, is a fool's game. It also provides a smaller pool for the powers that be to manipulate.

1)  Of course age is relevant.  It's not a sure thing, of course.  But a 30 year old is obviously less easily manipulated than a 3 year old.  That's why we both agree on an age criteria, yes?

2)  I don't know how many would fail to meet the criteria, since the details haven't been set.  Not sure how you work that out either.  But, let's agree that I would stop millions voting.  By setting the age at 18 rather than 16 you do the same.  It seems irrelevant, especially if voting can be harmful as well as good.  The point is that voting isn't neutral.  As your dad found out.  If stopping millions voting prevents great harm then surely that's the best thing to do?

3) Of course there's no simple obvious way to prevent bad choices and manipulation.  But surely we seek to reduce and limit it, yes?  Do we want children and lunatics to vote?  No.  There's no principle disagreement between us, merely a methodological one.  Which method best protects democracy whilst also limiting harm.

To limit or abrogate the right of one for fear it will be abused by another is a fools game. You obviously disagree and to continue past this point would be an exercise in futility. If you wish the last word on the subject, it's yours for the taking.