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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Has it been lost on everyone that a change in voting age (for national elections) requires a Constitutional amendment? See the 26th amendment for reference wherein the age was changed from 21 to 18. Both the House and the Senate would have to pass such an amendment by a 2/3 majority, and it would then have to be ratified by 3/4 of the states. Congress does not have the authority to simply pass a law to change the voting age.
DIMS Like her, CARE not what the constitution says.. THEY JUST DO what they want, and to HELL with the constitution..
ITS NOT like the GOP is going to sue them, or the DOJ will do anything.
“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.” Tripe, mindless tripe.
Most teenagers have their faces glued to their cell phones, and trust me, they aren’t reading up on the current political issues. This is a generation of people who can’t even talk to each other face to face, and we want them making decisions about who will run the country????
Why don’t we stop all the BS, cut to the chase and just say you can vote at birth??
1-Democrats would be totally opposed to abortion!!
2-“Child Advocate Psychics” could determine an infants choice of candidates!!
3-No more arguments about understanding the issues!!
WHY would they oppose abortion, if babies got the vote? IF YOU DIE< YOU JUST switch parties and become a democrat voter…
I remember when they lowered the voting age and drinking age to 18. The excuse was that if you’re old enough to be sent to war than you’re old enough to vote and drink. I half agree with that but 18 year olds aren’t capable of responsible drinking and it was proven several times over until the drinking age was moved back to 21. It’s questionable whether they can vote responsibly given the fact that they blindly vote dummycrat because they think it’s cool. But then, some adults never grew up and they still vote dummycrat. Since the pukes used the military as their argument, the U.S. military requires all enlistees to be at least 18. They also prefer at least a high school diploma or GED. A 17 year old can join but he must have written permission from the parent(s). But that does NOT give that person the right to vote or drink. We have an all volunteer military, so no one is forced into military service. And no one is required to register for the draft until they are 18. So the 16 year old voting law is just a bunch of dummycrat raw sewage. The only time a 16 year old could sneak into the military was during the 19th century when they didn’t do backround checks. Just sign on the dotted line, if they could write, or make their mark.
And even AT 21, there’s still quite a few folk who are STILL not responsible drinkers.
This Dem Rep must be affected from her Covid vaccination. She wanted the vaccinations given to people in jail first before our seniors in nursing homes. Now she wants high school students to be able to vote. Now since they are indoctrinated in high school by their teachers. Not sure how much slanted Civics the students have received in school. I really do not think this is appropriate at this age.
The dumber the voter, the better the left does…
This is a very very stupid idea as it shows that whoever came up with this, hasn’t been around the block or talked to any teenagers. Giving a 16 year old the right to vote is as smart as giving it to a 5th grader. Other than saying ‘I voted”, they could care less about politics. Partying, sex, social media and cell phones and growing up is their thing at that age. Watch tv on this, Jay Leno and others have done this ‘on the street’ scenario where they ask teenagers & college kids questions. Its absolutely amazing how dumb they are and don’t know a thing about politics; not even who the current president is. Guess the liberals want them to vote before they grow up and think for themselves. 90% would be more interested in being able to buy or drink alcohol than vote; take a poll.
I personally think the voting age should be upped to 25.
There is no way that a 16-year-old person is mature enough to vote. In fact, I really think the age of voting should be more like 25 or 30. Only people who hold jobs, pay taxes, and have a sense of responsibility should be making the choices of who runs this country. As it has been said in these comments, schools are very good at indoctrinating our youth. The Democrats are at the head of it with all the nonsense about questioning gender (God only made two–not 12 or 16, etc.), and canceling horrible things for racism like Dr. Suese or Kermit the Frog. Teenagers do NOT have enough life experience to choose leaders, and the Democrats know this.
Only an idiot cabbage head would push for 16 year old’s to vote in the most important decisions of electing wisdom, intelligence, character, loyalty to OUR country, integrity, knowledge, putting our citizens FIRST, putting God before themselves and the enemy, and just plain morality, of which these are the very LAST thing the young teenagers of today care about.
This shows us what the democrat agenda is, because anyone with a minute portion of intelligence would know that children are not responsible enough and certainly not mature enough to make decisions regarding dangerous consequences, not just for OUR citizen’s, and our country’s safety and well being, those decisions presidential decisions also affects the world, and their idol is not always the best choice. My goodness, they cannot discern good from bad, nor bad from good, and they just simply don’t give a flip which way the ball bounces because they live in a fantasy land. They go into tirades and drama queen antics over the least thing because they are suffering their hormone changes.
So, the democrats are thinking, “let’s make sure we win, because the 16 year olds are already indoctrinated into hating our country and they will do as we tell them to”..