What is it with certain Democrats and their desire to debase the vote? I can’t think of any other way to describe it. That would be the obvious upshot of a proposal by California Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, to reduce the voting age to 17.
“Young people are our future,” Low said. “Lowering the voting age will help give them a voice in the democratic process and instill a lifelong habit of voting.”
When, oh Lord, can we bury that hoary cliché? Young people are our future – and that’s a terrifying prospect. Civic ignorance is an epidemic, and we would do well to focus on eradicating that particular disease before allowing it to spread further. Lowering the age of eligibility would expand the pool of low-information voters, and that’s about it.
But Low is hardly the first to make a fetish of the mechanics of the franchise, with little or no apparent regard for the heavy responsibility the vote entails.
Fact is, politicians have been chasing the “youth vote” for almost 50 years. And for 50 years, the creature has remained almost as elusive as the Sasquatch.
Read the rest at the Sacramento Bee.