[Vision2020] Age Based Voting Restrictions

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

Donovan et. al.

The age restrictions on voting are to some extent arbitrary.  No doubt most 
10 year olds have limited capacities that render not allowing them to vote a 
sensible decision.  But many adults who can vote also have limited capacities 
that by the same logic should restrict their voting rights.  There is no 
rational way to regulate who should vote or not based on their capacity to reason, or 
on how informed they are, that does not appear to discriminate or put up 
barriers to voting, that many find unacceptable.  

I disagree that age brings wisdom or means than someone will be more informed 
or make better judgments.  A good argument could be made that the very 
elderly should not be able to vote any more than a 15 year old should, based on some 
sort of biological model of intelligence that informs us both that 15 year 
olds, and the very elderly, lack suitable intellectual and emotional qualities 
to insure a well thought out voting decision.

We could explore the whole notion of an autonomous individual with "free 
will" making informed logical decisions, and we might find this is to some extent 
an illusion anyway, fostered to compel the individual to conform compliantly 
to a control agenda based not on brutal external coercion, but willingly with 
the illusion in place they are making their own decisions of their own free 
will.  It is much easier to rule the masses if they believe they are willingly of 
their own choice following the leaders.

We better not go too far down that road, however, because this line of 
thinking, for which there is good support, undermines the foundations of our so 
called "individualistic" society, where people make "free" decisions as adults who 
know and understand what they are doing in full.

As if anybody does!

Ted Moffett
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