Give 10-Year-Olds the Vote

Politicians need to be held accountable for future constituents
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2010 1:59 PM CDT
Give 10-Year-Olds the Vote
Let 10-year-olds vote, argues Matt Miller.   (Shutterstock)

Politicians kiss babies all the time, but it's time that they had to kiss their asses, writes Matt Miller for the Washington Post. The best solution to Washington's insistence on selling every 5th-grader's future down the road for the sake of political expediency is to make every politician accountable to the kids. How? Lower the voting age to 10.

Kids say the darnedest things, and Miller imagines pols sputtering before pint-sized inquisitors: "What will you tell us if you leave behind a scorched planet? 'Sorry, kids, you had to be there—the interest-group politics were really tough'"? And before you dismiss the idea as ridiculous, "decide for yourself if the grown-ups really occupy the high ground here." Miller concludes: "I'm not saying "10" is the only answer. I want creative litigation brought on behalf of minor future taxpayers. Or anti-debt street protests by 10th-graders eager to redefine community service for their college résumés. (More voting stories.)

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