Argument - The Voting Age Must be Lowered

The Voting Age Must be Lowered for Democracy to Exist in America

Imagine for a moment that senior citizens were denied the right to vote. Imagine senior citizens being thought of as too incompetent to vote because some senior citizens are senile. Can you imagine such a large percentage of the American public being denied the right to vote – simply on account of their age? It cannot happen in America, right? Not in a free country, a country where the people control the government, not the other way around? It can happen. It does happen. Only, it does not happen to senior citizens – once they get the right to vote they keep it for life. It happens to young people – people below eighteen years of age. Youth are denied the right to vote solely on account of their age.

America is not a democracy if youth are denied the right to vote. Democracy is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as "government by the people." If some of the people – youth – are denied the right to vote for government leaders than the American government is not "by the people." The Declaration of Independence says that governments are instituted by the consent of the governed, and that governments can be overthrown when the people don’t consent anymore. Laws that young people are forced to obey are passed every day throughout the nation. Some of these laws only affect youth, such as curfew laws and compulsory school attendance laws. Most of these laws affect the whole population and all American citizens. Yet young people have no say in these laws, no say in the legislators that make these laws, no say in politics, no say in the rules that they must abide by. According to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, young people born in the United States are Am...

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... lowered if America is to be a free and democratic nation and youth are to be granted their human right to take part in the business of their nation by being allowed to vote.

Works Cited

D.G. "Election Elective." Education Week on the Web. 10 Feb. 1998. http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-11/13boxh11

Franklin, Bob. "Children’s Political Rights." The Rights of Children. 10 Feb 1998. http://www.bconnex.net/~cspcc/crime_prevention/rights.htm

St. Louis Post Dispatch, December 19, 1997, research provided by Keith Mandell. (12 Feb 1998).

"Ten Questions, One Easy Answer: Q&A on Children’s Suffrage." ACS: Association for Children’s Suffrage. 16 Feb. 1998. http://www.brown.edu/Students/Association_for_Childrens_Suffrage/

"Voting." ASFAR: Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions. 11 Feb. 1998 <http://www.oblivion.net/asfar/declaration/voting1.html>