Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
I think we should be equally arbitrary at 18 as we are at some other age. 80 might be reasonable or require mental competency beyond 75. My question for you essentially is why are you okay against discriminating against children since you aren’t in favour of descriminating against old age both of which have demonstrable lack of capacity as one ages or one hasn’t aged.
|
The difference is children who are mentally competent and engaged with public policy have to wait maybe 2-3 years before they can vote. They also have parents who typically have a keen interest in championing their interests while they’re minors. So it’s a brief and temporary denial of a civic right.
If you cut off seniors at 75, they may be denied voting for another 15-20 years. That’s a very different ball of wax.
And if we really were serious about vetting voters for mental competency, why stop at age? Why not screen for depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses? Should we be letting people with suicidal ideation or paranoia cast a ballot?
Seems a pretty ugly can of worms to open to address a non-problem. There are at least a half-dozen ways we could better improve democratic representation than messing with age limits and competency tests.