Should we lower the voting age to 16

a reply to: BrianFlanders

The constitution would survive. It says that Congress will levy taxes that's all.

The law doesn't have to do much beyond codify and ratify the method used to meet the needs of the country.

Amendments do exist. Fantasy is thinking that what is now will be set in stone unchanged. Even stone withers away in time.

The beauty is that our constitution was well made to survive and serve our changing abilities and needs.

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a reply to: tadaman
I don't get why so many US folk think the constitution cannot be changed. It's like 3 quarters majority in the house and senate and anything can be changed as far as I read it.
Old laws are not always good laws, heck it was illegal to be gay not so long ago.
That said though I think 16 is too young, but they vote at 16 in Scotland now so they obviously think different.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: tadaman
I don't get why so many US folk think the constitution cannot be changed. It's like 3 quarters majority in the house and senate and anything can be changed as far as I read it.

It's not that people think it CAN'T be changed. It's that it probably SHOULDN'T BE changed for trivial, trifling reasons. I see no compelling reason to change much of anything as far as what is there. If you want to live in a country where people don't have any rights, that's your business. I don't.

Old laws are not always good laws, heck it was illegal to be gay not so long ago.

That wasn't in the Constitution, however. The Constitution and BOR was the framework for making it illegal to put people in jail for being gay. Without it, gay people would probably still be outcasts. The Bill of Rights provided enough breathing room for them to eventually turn that around. Where would they be without the right to freedom of speech being recognized and upheld?

The BOR has been instrumental in providing the framework for almost every single major advance in human rights. Not that the founders may have ever intended that but if you read the Bill of Rights, slavery seems like a completely contradictory idea to what that seems to stand for. And whether they intended for that to be taken to it's logical conclusion or not, when you take it to it's logical conclusion, you cannot really accept the Bill of Rights unless you oppose slavery and all sorts of tyranny. This is a case where old laws were better than their creators may have realized.

If anything, the Bill of Rights should be expanded to fully articulate the right to self-ownership and self-determination for all people. Which means the government could never tell you what you can't do with your own body. But of course, that's FAR more progressive than any "progressive" I've ever heard of is willing to be.

a reply to: BrianFlanders

Well said

a reply to: JAGStorm

Should we lower the voting age to 16?

Have you MET a 16yr old?

Absolutely not. In fact, we should likely raise it to 25 at least.

In a sense, I get it (taxation without representation). My answer there, is no income tax on a person not old enough to vote.

How about you can buy liquor and vote if you can produce a military ID or proof of employment?

a reply to: JAGStorm

No.

originally posted by: BrianFlanders
If you want to live in a country where people don't have any rights, that's your business. I don't.

That would be North Korea then, pretty much every nation has decent human rights without your precious constitution. I'm glad you agree that the constitution CAN be changed if enough lawmakers wish it to happen though, like the constitution is the be all and end all of future law, it's not.
We have no constitution in the UK but I feel free, heck, I can cross the road wherever I feel it is safe and not face a ticket from a cop. I can even earn money working in a foreign country and not get taxed on it, the US is the only developed nation which taxes foreign earnings of citizens, the only way to avoid it is by relinquishing citizenship. Land of the free my fat hairy arse.

Britain has an unwritten constitution, the Acts of Parliament. Your founding document is the Magna Carta. There's also the English Bill of Rights, etc. So it may not be formalized, but it still exists, albeit more by tradition and piece-meal documentation.

a reply to: Gazrok



The UK does have legal guarantees protecting individual rights etc and British thinkers amongst others helped build the foundations and framework of the values and Constitution that the USA holds so dear.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg wanted to lower the age of legal sex to age 16. What is it about age 16 that's so special?

a reply to: carewemust
It is 16 in the UK. I left home aged 16,I knew if I consented to sex or not, didn't know # about politics though lol

Only veterans should be allowed to vote.

a reply to: ANNED
Lmao, like every grunt service person has full understanding of politics, give me a break.
I served in the Royal Navy, doesn't make my opinion on politics any more valid than someone who hasn't served.
This hard on you Americans have with 'vets' is pathetic.