As part of the H.R. 1 voting rights package, Progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives unsuccessfully pushed an amendment seeking to lower the federal voting age from 18 to 16.
The vote was 125-302, with majority of democrats voting in favor, 125-93, Fox News reports.
“A sixteen-year-old in 2021 possesses a wisdom and a maturity that comes from 2021 challenges, 2021 hardships, and 2021 threats,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, one of the progressives behind the amendment, said in a statement Monday. “Now is the time for us to demonstrate the courage that matches the challenges of the modern-day sixteen and seventeen-year-old.”
Reps. Pressley, Grace Meng (D-NY) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill) reintroduced the amendment Monday.
Pressley said in February that she was “shocked” that lowering the voting age to 16 is a “polarizing” subject in Congress.
“I was shocked by how polarizing an issue this was, and listen, when I would tell people [the late Rep.] John Lewis is an original co-sponsor of this – you know, our young people deserve to have a stakeholder in our democracy,” Pressley said.
The move to lower the voting age isn’t new. The amendment was first introduced in March 2019, but failed after only receiving 126 votes in the House.
“Beginning at the age of 16, young people are contributing to both the labor force and their local economies by paying income taxes, and yet they are deprived of the opportunity to exercise their right to vote,” Pressley said in 2019. “In this country, we affirm that when a person walks into the voting booth and pulls the lever, there is no meritocracy or hierarchy. The booth is the equalizer.”
Some states have taken individual interest in the issue. Hawaii lawmakers introduced a bill last January that would lower the voting age to 16.
Lowering the voting age to 16 would cause more problems than it would solve.
Indeed, researchers state that the brain is still developing into the mid-20s, with moral reasoning and abstract thought coming later in the cycle than previously thought. At 16, your brain is still in its prime developmental stages.
At the age of 16, most are in high school learning what the government is and how it works. Parents are still an overarching factor in many of the decisions 16-year-olds make, so lowering the voting age would essentially be a second vote for many parents.
Additionally, many states across the country have increased the age for getting a driver’s license from 16 to 17. If you are too young to drive, perhaps that means you are too young to vote.
The post Progressive Dems Unsuccessfully Push to Lower Voting Age to 16 appeared first on Human Events.
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Ah, the progressive (and I do use the words lightly) communists, with fraud, 16 year olds voting and illegal aliens voting. The California and New York model for destroying society aka metastatic cancer aka a cesspool of toxins. That covers the communist Democrats in a nutshell!
Just one very sad thing to remember, today’s 16 year old kids spend so much time with their faces stuck to their cell phones, they haven’t learned how to deal with face to face relations. It’s very easy to sway kids that know so little about the real world around them. Brain washing the youth of today is so easy, I mean look how many adults fall for the same lies. This is the age of puberty, has anyone seen how crazy Deer get during the mating cycle time of year? Brains just go out the window.
Add the fact that they aren’t really teaching history in schools any longer and the “history” that they do hear is so white-washed that it has crossed into fiction and there is no way that a 16 year old should be voting.
THAT IS Why they want to reduce the voting age.. CAUSE THE KIDS ARE DUMB, and easily moulded by their indoctrination.
>> At the age of 16, most are in high school learning what the government is and how it works. <<
Wishful thinking.
True, they’re more likely to be getting indoctrinated into how socialism and communism are great, capitalism is evil.
“A sixteen-year-old in 2021 possesses a wisdom and a maturity that comes from 2021 challenges, 2021 hardships, and 2021 threats,”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, one of the progressives behind the amendment, said in a statement Monday.
Hummm… How did these 16 years old teens achieve the “wisdom”, “maturity” “hardships” and “treats” in just the 60 day of year 2021??
Massachusetts’s 7th congressional district must really have dumb citizens
if the best they have is Rep. Ayanna Pressley to represent them. 😯
I find Ayanna Pressly to be a very stupid person ! Every single bill that she is involved with is a very BAD , and senseless one. She and another Democrat have introduced a bill that I read about today, where they want to be able to sue Police Officers. I hope that does not pass either, as we have enough problems getting Police officers today, without this bill making it worse ! By the way 16 year old teens are NOT capable of making intelligent decisions, because that area of their brain is NOT fully developed at 16 years !
YET< if someone asked her "SO does that mean a 16 yr old has the maturity to own a gun, go have a beer or smoke"? She'd say HELL NO.
Yeah, sorry about that. I’m from Massachusetts, and Rep. Pressley is such an embarrassment. The problem is that Mass. is turning into a one-party state — Democrat of course. The majority of legislators who run for re-election have no challengers. Once a politician gets voted in, they don’t leave office unless they resign or get convicted for corruption. Massachusetts is the poster child for what happens without term limits.
Just one look at Ayanna Pressley before (three years ago) and after (today) shows all that you need to know about her! A freak of nature in both beliefs and appearance!
They are probably blind. Elvis wannabe Pressley used Amour All on her head and the reflection from the sun is hard on the eyes.
That sounds like how MOST Democrat ran states wind up being.. ONE Party only (NY, CA, OR, Wa and so on). ONCE they get in, it takes an act of god to get them out.
Pressley look like obama’s mate and i don’t think that this is even a woman looks more like a man.
There’s days, i’d just LOVE for a borg like ship, so i could use a tractor beam, and CUT THOSE STATES out of the union, and air drop them into the middle of space. IMO that is the only way to erase this cancer from society.
When I was a youth of 16, I wasn’t much into voting. And, being unemployed save for a newspaper delivery route, I could easily have been ‘convinced’ to vote on nearly any subject, if motivated by some cash, or some slick ‘snake-oil salesman’! As such, I CERTAINLY shouldn’t have been allowed to vote!
Personally, I’m not sure that even a twenty-one or older person, say, until thirty, should be allowed, as they haven’t the maturity to consider all the ramifications of a potential vote, but that’s another issue.
Hence why i agree with the Suggestion someone had, of raising it to 25. OR 19 for those in the military.
What a bunch of no conscience idiots!
If they lowered the voting age to 3 months within the womb, the Democrats would never win an election again.That is why they target the post pubescent emotionally vulnerable, now educationally deprived of a year of learning and thinking dangerously with the ability to figure things out. They and their social insanity have become a national cancer in need to a total removal lest their infections return and grow back to destroy the productive sane parts of what’s left of the American body politic.
THe dems aer the science deniers, SINCE THEY ARE SAYING “your more mature at a younger age” for one thing, but “YO ARE NOT mature enough” for most other things..
TO ME< all age requirements, should be the SAME! EITHER ALL should be 16 (including smoking/drinking/owning a gun)< OR ALL should be 21! (including voting and getting a drivers license).
Lowering the voting age to 16? This is beyond galactic-scale stupid. If “Baldy” Pressley thinks 16 year olds have enough “wisdom and maturity” to vote, then she should have no problem with them owning and purchasing firearms, buying property, entering contracts, driving POVs, operating heavy machinery, drinking alcohol or smoking, and enlisting in the armed forces.
Ayanna Pressley: This is what end-stage stupidity looks like. Don’t let it happen to you.
End-stage stupidity has already happen to the democrat party complete idiot morons that have lost there minds and only a civil war will put this country back on the right track and back to GOD.
IN HEr case (as with damn near everyone in the DNC), it’s already TOO LATE.
I don’t know very many 16-year olds who are “mature”, and I certainly don’t know any 16-year olds who have wisdom.
Though I DO support changing the voting age…. but it should be RAISED from 18 to 23.
Here is a thought, let’s make the voting age at the moment of conception, that way when a democrat murders a child, they are killing a voting member of society.
Sadly, Rep. Ayanna Pressley fails to possess the wisdom and maturity that comes from 2021. She is just another lefty liberal hack that wants to destroy America.
If TRUE, then 16 year olds should be tried as ADULTS, be allowed to purchase GUNS and be drafted and/or register for the draft!
you forgot about purchasing booze and tobacco in or out side of a bar… oh yeah… I forgot no one can go into a bar because of the CHINA virus.
I wonder where SHE Stands on making women Sign up FOR the draft, like all men still do.
At sixteen most would be entirely immersed in the liberal indoctrination of political theory without the experience of they themselves would be effected by their votes. Since politics has become more and more based on the cult of personality than the issues this is an attempt to snare the unprepared into making choices beyond their capacity. With shades of “Wild in the Streets” from the 1960s, Can you trust anyone in Congress forty seven?” “
OF course this is why they want to push this, cause THEY CONTROL the brainwashing of the kids.. ITS only when they hit the real world, some wake up…
What happened, did someone wake up?
Kids being pursued by the left to shape the country? Sure–I can see the Joe Bidens , dressed in trench coats and sun glasses AND protective covid masks, brandishing Hershey bars, sniffing the bicycle seats in the elementary school racks while awaiting for recess so that they could make their pitch to their prospective voters when they were released to the playground.
16 year olds don’t know their *** from a hole in the ground…which also describes most demorats.
Of course the lib-tard dem-rats would love to see KIDS voting @ 16 years of age. They’ve been brain-washed by ultra lib-tard teachers since the 1st day they walked into “Pre-School”.
Gotta start ’em early so they grow up to be good little dem-rats.
Wonderful idea – and while at it, please add drivers licenses, being tried as an adult, obtain mortgages and personal loans/credit cards, rent vehicles, legally buy liquor and drugs, attend porn shows and nightclubs, and reinstitute the Selective Service Act. Did I miss anything the little darlings should be able to do in the new USSA?
They’d NEVER EVER lower the smoking/drinking/owning gun ages to 16..
The progressives are in favor of lowering the voting age as long as they think it will benefit the politically. If a majority of those 16 and 17 year olds turn out to vote for conservative candidates they will quickly want to change the law back to 18 as the voting age.
Just like if even 40% o illegal aliens who DID vote, voted conservative, THE DEMS would be all for securing our border.
DEMOCRATS ARE INSANE!!!! Most 16 year olds are still in 10th grade of school.. they are NOT mature enough yet.. They won’t even take you in the service til you are 18 AND GRADUATED!!! They have been indoctrinating these kids in school to socialism and other garbage .. sure they want them to vote so they can remain in power with the sick policies and their promises of free this, free that while they hands are in you back pocket to steal your money… there are some 16 year olds that are smart and responsible, but that is NOT the norm… 16 year olds are STILL kids and do NOT have the sense to do what is right… ANYONE who thinks a 16 year old should vote is INSANE… and SURE don’t care about the country…SO MANY of them can’t even make change … and these lunatic democRATS want them to vote!! STUPID!!!
Most 16 year old kids I know of are interested in only three things:
1. Peer acceptance via constant use of a cell phone
2. Getting a driver’s license
3. Getting or having access to a car
Politics is WAAAAAAAY down on the list of important stuff, so the average 16 year old with the right to vote would be the proverbial bull in the china shop. Lots of damage, very little substance.
Yep, I agree. RAISE the voting age to 23 for those who DO NOT serve in the armed forces. Those who do serve may vote at the age of 18.
You forgot, getting laid
Years ago 16 year old boys were highly interested with the smell of gasoline and perfume, before the cell phone era, which about covered everything. A person had a hard time getting them to think otherwise.
Kind of off the subject, but Ayanna Pressley reminds me of a Coneheads movie character after seeing a dentist, not to be rude, well lots of sarc!
What we all need to remember is that this is the age group that was eating Tide pods which is indicative of their level of maturity or lack of it. They are too easily impressionable at age 16 which is what the Democrats are counting on. They will promise them the moon for their votes and these kids will take the bait hook, line, and sinker.
Ever see the Tom Cruise/Robert redford film “Lions for Lambs”? IMO one of the best clips i remember from that film, was when the characters of Rodriguez (Eric Penna) and Arian Finch (Derek luke) were doing their presentation, and went over one of their ideas for baking things better..
I’d LOVE TO SEE that made real.
I love the argument “because they pay taxes”… how about if you’re under the age of 18 you don’t pay any taxes. Then the employer could hire MORE youngsters to spur the economy on. That’s all these communist occupier useless fragments of dung do in the cesspool/swamp of the government … come up with ways to extract money from the American citizens. We have only one option left ..with these scum.
BY her logic, shouldn’t we also expand voting to ILLEGAL aliens, and Immigrants who are not permanent residents, “CAUSE THEY ALSO pay taxes”??
Chances are that is her next suggestion.
Why are these people called progressive? Their entire agenda is focused on getting more votes at any cost. Encouraging open borders, defunding police and letting 16 years old children vote will only hurt the American people. They should be call Reprehensibles.
How is it that 16 year olds are too immature to purchase tobacco, guns, or alcohol, be held responsible for crimes as an adult, enter in to legal contracts as an adult or even work in many cases without special permits, but they are mature enough to vote?
Pressley is guilty of neanderthal thinking. What a crock!
Don’t forget, to libtards, you are “Mature enough” TO know what gender you want to be at BEFORE AGE 8…
We keep being told 18 and 19 year olds are teenagers and their brains are not developed yet.And they don’t know right from wrong yet So need to raise the voting age to 21.
Extending the voting age to 23 Years would be even better. The decision area of the brain is NOT fully developed, until about 25 years old, so the later the better, when it comes to voting !
Rep. Pressley & others like her, are simply proving how irrational and incompetent they are, when they try to promote such absurd legislation. Demonstrating that she is irrational & incompetent is very simple, just look at the reasoning she gives for her support of lowering the voting age. She states that it takes “courage that matches the challenges of modern day 16 year-old,” to vote for this proposal. So if it’s all about having “courage,” how about having enough courage to allow 14 year-olds to vote??
The poor choices that so many teenagers make proves they are still developing in their maturity, and they are not ready for the huge responsibility of voting for the highest offices in our Government!! At sixteen years old, they don’t even know enough about our constitution & our Government to make an educated decision on who to vote for. Unfortunately, many in our Government don’t even seem to possess some of this basic knowledge, so how in the world do they expect a 16 year old to have it??
AND If a 16 yr old has ‘Courage and maturity”, why then do we keep seeing the left, WANT TO RAISE the ownership for gun age, to 21 or beyond..
Interesting idea. I’ll buck the trend here and say ‘sure’ but with certain restrictions. No 16 or 17 year old can vote without being able to pass the US citizenship test and an economics test. That way the young people who are well educated, who understand how the system works, and who can think logically would be able to vote and the rest not.
My 16 year old child who has been home educated, who has learned how our government system works, who has already passed the citizenship test (it is actually a requirement to graduate from H.S. in our state), and who is taking a course in logic could vote.
It might not be a bad idea to have those same restrictions (citizenship and basic economics test) for ALL voters.
I’d certainly AGREE with mandating someone be required to pass a test on citizenship, before one registers to vote.
Well the dummies that vote for democrats certainly do NOT have any more Acquired Knowledge than a 16 year old that would be useful in Electing a Dog Catcher let alone a President!
What rational person would vote for the likes of Biden or Obama or any Democrat for that matter? Of course, someone that is corrupt, depraved and Morally Bankrupt would vote for a Democrat!
Bottom Line: Our Country would be better off without the Democrat Party and the Malcontents that vote for them Be They Alive or Desd,
Even 18-year olds don’t have sufficient life experience to be expected to make reasonable choices of government office-holders. Democrats (Socialists) love to push these emotional appeals that have no basis in fact or reason. Biden’s entire basement campaign was based on an emotional appeal to people naturally upset or even fearful of the pandemic, not on policy positions.
Most 21 year olds do not have the capacity to think rationally, especially if they have been indoctrinated in college. The fact that 18 year old snowflakes are voting is scary enough, let alone a snowflake who is only 16 years old.
WE see that especially, with college age morons….
How about that, what survey did she use to determine that 16yr olds are mature? I guess the same one that made Biden and Harris their leaders, they will stop at nothing to get a vote in their pocket.