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re: Citizens' United...it begins...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/08/17/us/politics/AP-US-RGA-NewsCor...
DRichards(#18) You also a Reverse-Churchill?
Me too! It wasn't until my later years that I became a Liberal.
no way should 16 year olds be able to vote,in most cases they dont have the mental capacity to understand the ramifications(even though there are a lot of adults in that same boat), thats why they arent considered an adult at that age...and Thom saying giving them the right to vote will make them get interested in the process is false as well,80-90 percent of teenagers all the way up to 19 could really care less about government or voting unless they are pushed or prodded into a certain way of thinking by an adult...but if they work they do pay taxes and then its a different story
If you lowered the voting age to 16, then put an initiative to lower the legal age to have sex to 16, I bet you'd have an enormous turn out for the election. 15 -17 year old boys would probably go on 24 hr canvasing sprees. :-)
N
I argued for the voting age drop from twenty one to eighteen back in the Sixties before it finally happened in 1971 with the ratification of the Twenty Sixth Amendment to our Constitution. The absence of a vibrant civic culture inside and outside our schools drained away much of the potential of this electoral liberation for youngsters. Their turnout was lower than older adults - Ralph Nader '08
Hey what about the other side of the argument, how about puting an age limit on voting. Noone over the age of 65 can vote. So from age 18 through 65 you can work and vote.
N
PBS is a shadow of its former self.
I'd rather see them delete civics from the curriculum and teach polly-sci instead. Social contract theory and the like. And some Machiavelli should be required reading.
PUT CIVICS BACK in the classroom
Youth Voting RightsYou are sixteen --Tuesday, June 3. 2008 --http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/1311-Youth-Voting-Rights.html --Nader/Gonzales 2008 --in 2008 6 candidates earned enough ballot lines to win enough electoral college votes --to be our President -- OPENTHEDEBATES --thank-you for your consideration --GRATEFULLY EVERYTHING CHANGES --with so many options avoided by DEMS/PUBS --
Why is it the people who don't want 16 year olds to vote, also think people in their 20's aren't capable of voting? 14 yr olds are old enough to be taught algerbra, I can extrapolate from that that they are capable of critical thinking.
N
@tuptewalker, my god man you're practically a heretic with your progressive idealism. What did you do, did you actually read the Gospels and take they words at face value? It says a lot that you say you're a "Progressive Christian" used to be redundant to state it that way.
Well good on you for having worthy principals, and yes may the corrupt and twisted lose their hold on both the christian churches and houses of Government... the world round.
N
@rladlof#9, in my case it was normal adolescent rebellion as I come from a liberal family and liberal school district.
Right wingers don't have the cognitive ability to vote either, so should we outlaw them from voting.
N
Conservatives call us pessimists, but they're über pessimistic about human nature.
BUT 16 year olds are being indoctrinated in knee-jerk Objectivism in their home-schooling, Hell-oriented homes.
Is there such a thing as speaking with a "conservative accent?"
Why not lower the voting age to 14, the same average age that people enter high school.
N
If 16 year olds were allowed to vote, even a greater percentage of youth would not vote.
N
If they let me vote at age 16, I would have voted Republican. I was going through a conservative phase at that time. I understand Thom was a Goldwater Republican at age 13. I don't know whether he had snapped out of it by age 16.
Is NAZI becoming another N-word, in which only right wing fascists can use it?
N
Video games are becoming more and more graphically realistic, but no virtual system is going to make the experience real. No virtual system is going to blow your leg off, spurt your buddy's blood in your face, or put your brain into such stress that it changes your personality permanently. Teenagers and pre-teens are not the only one's playing the games, though, 20, 30 & 40 + are, and yes a lot of gamers join the military as a result. These games are actually supported by the military industrial complex. Should they be regulated like pornography, I don't know, will they be regulated (other than the violence rating on the corner of the box), probably not in my lifetime or my grandchildren's, grandchildren's, grandchildren's, grandch... lifetime.
Also comparing regulation of the games to pornography regulation doesn't seem correct to me. I would compare it to the regulation of alcohol and tobacco, and should be labeled in similar fashion, such as:
"Warning, playing this game may cause unreasonable expectations of war. Players may suffer delusions of invulnerability and superiority which may result in desires to actually join the military, which may lead to causing mayhem, death, and/or dying."
That being said, I do enjoy playing the Medal of Honor WWII series of games, as well as the Call of Duty Word at War game. Especially fun to play on the Wii game system since you get to point a gun at the screen. Totally awesome, and yet I have never wanted to join the military because of these games... though I also read enough military history that I'm aware of the pain and suffering that is associated with it, enough so that I don't want any part of it. Also there is another thing that these games can make gamers aware of (because most aren't the idiots people assume they are), its nearly impossible to be on the frontlines and not get killed.
N
The mission of The Future of Freedom Foundation is to advance freedom by providing an uncompromising moral and economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government.
I want to apologize to Thom and his viewers & listeners. Yesterday I helped start the circular firing squad/wind discussion, but was perhaps too animated doing it (calling into the show came off a few hours of Facebook debates). I still believe the President's two statements addressed unequivocally the Cordoba House by framing it in the 1st amendment. Like the microbes in War of the Worlds, or a Muhammad Ali Phantom Punch, Obama beat the right-wing on Friday night but it took until Monday for the body to fall. He won on the facts and the Constitution, which is why the weekend debate on their side devolved to talk of "sentiments" or "feelings" and not law. On the issue of the Democrats not defending their own, I used the example of John Kerry/Hillary Clinton...sadly Harry Reid proved my point by the end of the day.