right to vote for children?

[Spec]

People cant read right....

KIDS WONT VOTE

PARENTS WILL VOTE FOR THEM!!!!

Sigh...


Spec.

[Ecthy]

power rangers! power rangers! POWER RANGERS!!!

read second post

[Japher]

KIDS WONT VOTE

PARENTS WILL VOTE FOR THEM!!!!

What?

Imagine all the poll problems we will have, I mean adults can't even use them punch cards right (cause they're stupid) imagine a kid without the manual dexterity to even wipe their butts trying to punch one of those things!!!! We'll have to make the booths smaller too

[Spec]

Ahhhh...

We posted at the same time exactly...

But you still cant read right.

Spec.

[GePap]

Obviously the right wingers have the misguided idea that family types will back their neanderthal policies, and if they have as many votes as spawns, this will lead to political hegemony for the right..

And this ia generally a horrible idea for it violates the notion of one-man one vote. Kids do get a vote, once they reach legal voting age.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Mercator
That's ridiculous.

You either give the child the right to vote, or you don't. But you don't let someone else vote for the child.

thats why its a far right idea - the lineal descendant of having landowners represent tenants, Guild masters represent journeymen, etc. Give supervotes to those who exercise power in the private realm, so that the public realm both supports the private power relationships, and so that the presumably right wing power holders get a disproportionate vote. See also the notion of a "householders vote". The power of parents over their children is more legitimate, but the disproportionate power over singles would be objectionable to many.


In some jurisdictions in the US elderly homeowners have pushed for tax cuts that starved public education - in the US i think such an arrangement would actually have a progressive effect.

I doubt the right wing in european countries with large muslim minorities will like it though.

[Monk]

I always thought it would be nice if in order to vote you first had to answer a few basic History/Civics questions such as how many branches of government are there, who issued the emancipation proclomation, who was our enemy during the Revolutinary war, what percentage of Congresional votes is needed to overturn a veto, etc. This way we could weed out the total moron vote.

Okay Shi, so I take it you're in favour of taxation without representation? Well, you're probably not in favour of taxation at all, but you get the general idea. When the government takes my money away from people, the very least they can demand is that they have some sort of say over how that money is spent. Of course, not counting the fact that the idea would be quite difficult and expensive to carry out.

The percentage of Americans voting is too low already, and although I don't have seen any stats on the matter, I'd be surprised if the people who don't vote are the most clever ones.

Oh, and this idea sucks, but you all have to remember that the extremes on either side can and will go to all forms of nonsense to be mentioned in the press as they know they won't ever have to carry out their idea in real life. So a considerable amount of the controversial suggestions they put forth is just bogus

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
It'd never happen though, because the Democrats wouldn't agree since they would lose too many votes.

While it's a cute joke, statistically, the less educated you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican.

[chequita guevara]

It's an interesting concept, though.

Which parent would get the vote, though?

[GePap]

Like LoTM said, it would have a huge effect in the voting power of groups that have lots of children, and the middle calss is not generally included in that group in the US.

[Starchild]

Idea in thread: bit crazy. However, there is an idea that I have been thinking about for some time. And it's kinda like giving the vote to minors so I'm gonna bring it up here.

In the Uk, 16 marks the age when you no longer have to attend education fulltime. Once you've hit 16, it's your choice to continue on to A-Levels/Highers, do a vocational degree, get a fulltime job, etc. However, the voting age is 18. Given the average 16 year old I encounter, a part of me is glad they can't vote.

Yet another part says that these people are mature enough to decide the course of their education and careers so why not let them cast a vote for the people deciding on things that affect them? Why not lower the voting age to 16?

[Ben Kenobi]

I don't like the idea of people casting votes for other people

Shi:

Interesting. Sounds a lot like baptism-by-proxy.

I'm against this Austrian proposal. Keep the voting age at 18.

[mrmitchell]

This is the worst idea I've heard in several weeks. Good job.

I always thought it would be nice if in order to vote you first had to answer a few basic History/Civics questions such as how many branches of government are there, who issued the emancipation proclomation, who was our enemy during the Revolutinary war, what percentage of Congresional votes is needed to overturn a veto, etc. This way we could weed out the total moron vote. It'd never happen though, because the Democrats wouldn't agree since they would lose too many votes.

Didn't the South use that to prevent usually poorly educated blacks* from voting? Even if they were very smart, that doesn't prevent a crooked test-grader from failing him just because he's black.

*I'm not indicating that blacks are idiots. I'm indicating that, yes, African Americans in the early and mid 1900s were more likely to be uneducated than whites because of segregated schools that favored whites over blacks.

[mrmitchell]

By the way, the thread title is misleading. Children aren't actually gaining any rights at all, their parents are instead gaining first-class citizenship with 2 or more votes for one man (while infertile, single, and other unfortunate citizens who certainly can't control their own fate are shafted.)

A more accurate thread title would be "The stupidest idea of the week," "Dumbasses abound!", or "Severe mental disorders: Symptoms."

[Theben]

I wonder if people would have more kids to increase their voting power? And let's not forget that catholics would then have more power than protestants.

Incredibly dumb idea, tho.