People younger than 18 should be able to vote in the U.S.

Thank you Romanii for your refutations, My opponent observed that the resolution "supports eliminating the age limit entirely, allowing voting for ALL people under eighteen, ranging from infants, to small children, to teenagers." He went on to conclude "there do certainly exist politically savvy teenagers who are able to make intelligent voting decisions,"" My Opponent just admitted that there do exists in our society citizens who are deprived the right to vote due to age despite them being capable of their own beliefs, interests, and prefrences. Consider how intelligent the average voter really is" "In 2011, Newsweek asked 1,000 Americans to take the standard U.S. Citizenship test, and 38 percent of them failed. One in three couldn"t name the vice-president."(1) "About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey. "The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms." (2) Here is another link that shows more of the same (3) Turns out many of those who can and do vote are not particularly "politically savvy" unlike those teenagers my opponent says "certainly exist." If we were to exclude the less politically savvy adults from voting it would be argued that we have taken away their unalienable right to vote. Therefore it is not reasonable to restrict one from voting due to intelligence. He goes on to that children "are most likely going to just copy the political opinions of their parents". "What eliminating age restrictions does, then, is that it gives individuals with children the ability to double, triple, or even quadruple their say in the government by indoctrinating their children to cast their votes a certain way! This is absolutely unfair to all of the nation's other individuals, who only get one ballot per person." The same was argued about giving women the right to vote, giving their husbands two votes instead of one. As it turns out many women do vote with their husbands and many do not. As far as if it would be fair to give individuals with children the ability to double or quadruple their say in government, does not an adult with three kids under the current set up only have one vote to represent four peoples interests? That in not fair either. Remember I am in no way advocating that parents vote for their kids but that the kids have the ability to vote because they are citizens. It would be a hard case to prove that the average voter in the U.S.A. is not "subject to ideological indoctrination due to their lack of intellectual maturity." My opponent says ""Taxation without representation" is just a phrase with some historical significance; Pro has not provided any real Constitutional basis for us to believe that all instances of 'taxation without representation' need to be disallowed." Con is correct that there is not real Constitutional basis to believe that all instances need to be disallowed. I never argued there was, however the historical significance has had a huge impact on our society today and in many ways is a part of American culture. Many Americans still believe it is tyranny to tax without representation.(4) I certainly agree. Considering that many citizens who have the right to vote do not vote, it is a shame that we keep some citizens who would like to vote from voting just due to age.(5) Conclusion: To my delight it seems that Con at heart agrees with me as he stated in his argument that ""..one of the core tenets of democracy: that all citizens should have an equal say in the government." I agree. All Citizens regardless of race, gender, and age, should have an equal say in the government. This is a no brainer Vote Pro! (1)http://www.salon.com... (2)http://www.alternet.org... (3)http://www.publicpolicypolling.com... (4)http://en.wikipedia.org... (5)http://www.fairvote.org...