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Sunday, December 26, 2021

Fighting Cynicism in the New Year

                                Fighting Cynicism in the New Year

By Albert B. Kelly

As we put the finishing touches on 2021, I’m not sure what to think. Some of that is due to what’s been happening these days and some of it because I’m getting old and I realize there are far more shades of gray than I could see when I was younger. That’s one of the things that happen with age. When I was younger, everything was black and white, right or wrong and I felt comfortable staking out position and defending it.

Not so much these days. The downside to this realization is the fact that I’m less certain of the things I once felt strongly about. These days it tends to seep into my politics and maybe that’s a good thing because we need more shades of gray in our politics. I say that because we started 2021 with a siege on the Capital worthy of the Visigoths. But for a few hallways and some strong doors near the Senate floor, that day might have ended far differently than it did.

If there is something I need to guard against as I end my third quarter and begin the fourth, it’s being cynical. One thing I am not cynical about is the energy and passion of our young people and this is why I believe we would do well to lower the voting age so that 15, 16, and 17 year-olds could vote in State, County and Municipal elections. If that sounds like too much too fast, then focus on lowering the voting age for local elections.

This has been done with success in Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Denmark to name a few places. Data from Denmark shows that 18 year olds were more likely to cast a "first vote" than 19 year olds and that each passing month of age resulted in further declines in "first vote" turnout. Not to put too fine a point a point it, but as time passes bad habits and cynicism start creeping in.

The National Youth Rights Association noted a “trickle up” effect when 16 and 17 year-olds were able to vote- they were more engaged on the issues affecting them and their families. Participating early nurtures a civic-mindedness that lasts a lifetime in these young people. They have a lot of skin in the game.

Thousands of teens are tried as adults each year in this country many ranging in age from 15-17 years old. They can be punished as adults, but they can’t vote? Many 16 and 17 year-olds begin to drive, hold their first jobs, pay taxes and comprise a much sought-after consumer group.

At the age of 16, many teens start making life-altering decisions like where to go to college or even if they should go to college. At this point in their lives they start picking career tracks and take SAT tests where scores shape futures, yet we don’t let them vote in elections.

Decades ago the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. At that time, the argument was that young people could be drafted, but they couldn’t vote for those sending them off to fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam. That was a powerful argument back then and the voting age was lowered.

Today, it’s not the draft but climate change and global warming and greenhouse gases and the fact that the next couple of generations will have to clean up the mess we’re avoiding. We might do a hell of a lot better on this issue if young people had the ability to organize and vote our behinds out of office.   

If you doubt the need to hold us accountable, consider that at the most recent global summit on climate change progress was deciding on terminology- whether to “Phase-out” coal rather than “Phase-down” coal. For the next generation, it’s the equivalent of choosing between asphyxiating and suffocating.

If it’s not climate change; maybe its gun control and the body count from school shootings or overdose deaths from the opioid crisis or the way this generation lost over a year of schooling to the pandemic or paying student loans into middle age.  

The young are not cynical like many of us and while they have the energy and hope to believe that things can be better, let’s help them in 2022 by giving them the opportunity to vote and to help change the shape of what’s to come.