Do you remember yourself at 16? Just starting out in life and ready to take on the world? If you were anything like I was, having a car and driver’s license was just about everything, oh, except for boys…
Freedom was finally mine for the taking. I mean, I was practically an adult, right? And no one could tell me no.
However, as we aged, most of us quickly realized that we really didn’t have a clue about life back then. There was so much more, and, for most, it would take years for us to understand even half of that. There’s a reason the phrase reads ‘young and dumb.’
But apparently, that’s not how the Democratic left remembers their late childhoods. Perhaps that’s because they still think they know it all.
Take Massachusetts House Representative and liberal Ayanna Pressley, for example.
She thinks that she and her cohorts were so wise at the ripe old age of 16 that she should have been allowed to vote and have a say in national and worldwide politics. And so she’s putting forth a bill to lower the national voting age to 16.
On Wednesday, she said to the House floor while introducing her bill, “by lowering the federal voting age from 18 to 16 years of age, my amendment would enfranchise young Americans to help shape and form the policies that will set the course for our future.”
She continued, saying, “We must do right by the young organizers and activists who have fought for our democracy. They have a stake hold in our democracy and deserve to have a stake at the ballot box.”
And of course, most of her Democratic colleagues agreed with her.
Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky said of the matter, “All over the country, and in my district especially, we see young activists working tirelessly to make their voices heard – from battling climate change and gun violence to advocating for racial justice and economic equality.”
And yes, those efforts deserve some attention and possibly even a reward.
But it what really why Dems are pushing for this move? It seems far more likely that they are simply doing it to gain more votes.
Why?
Well, it’s a fairly well-known fact that younger generations tend to vote a bit more liberally than older ones. 2020 was a prime example of this. According to voting records, nearly 65 percent of all 18-24 voted for Biden in the presidential election.
And why wouldn’t they? I mean, the liberal left is promising things like free housing, base incomes, free healthcare, free education, and government ran everything. It’s basically the dream of every young adult who has just learned that responsibility can suck sometimes.
However, studies also show that they don’t really understand what all that means. They don’t know what it will take from them in the process – all they see is what they get – just like any 16-year-old who is more focused on themselves than anything else around them.
I mean, do you know many teenagers? Do they seem to understand the ramifications of their actions fully? Sure, there are some that likely do. But clearly not all.
Hell, my 25-year-old son still can’t grasp most of that, let alone my 15-year-old. And do you think one more year is going to put all that into perspective for them? I doubt it.
Luckily, most of the House agrees with me and not Pressley. When it was time to vote on Wednesday, the results left Pressley trailing 125-302.
If it had passed, it would have been included in what is being called HR 1 or For the People Act. This is a voting rights package put forward by the left whose goals so far are to legalize ballot harvesting nationwide, throw out state voting laws, and make all elections federal, as well as to force taxpayers to fund political campaigns, even if they don’t support the candidates.
Republicans, naturally, are making a stand against it though, claiming it as radical and a complete compromise to the already shaky integrity of our election process.