A note to Max and his IQ test:
IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is only a measure of POTENTIAL one person has, not actually knowledge. I’ve seen people with an IQ of 110 outsmart and outthink a person with an IQ of 150. It’s all in how you use it or if you use it at all. Giving people IQ tests to vote would be the same as putting them through Olympic trials to vote. Would YOU like that?
Somehow, I don’t think so.
In my experiance, highschool students really care about politics. I remember several tomes in highschool when debates broke out in class. , And this includes people that aren’t 18 yet. Infact, just the other day a 17 year old I know came up to me and told me to vote for Bush because he agrees with Bush’s social security plan.
When I was in high school, we were having a debate on the abortion issue (Webster had just come out, and since most of us were 17 and 18, it seemed appropriate to discuss access to reproductive health care). It was an attempt by the teacher to try to get all of us involved and to examine and express our feelings on this issue.
Several girls said stuff like “I’m pro-life because that’s what my parents are.” The teacher said “So if you became pregnant, you wouldn’t consider abortion?” One girl from that bunch said “I didn’t say that. I said I’m pro-life.”
So, we have kids who don’t even understand the terminology, let alone the issues, and whose opinions simply mirror their parents.
I’m wondering if some group like the League of Women Voters has or can develop a political education curriculum to help educate new voters on issues of current import. That may help the problem.
Robin
Both those organizations have specific political agendas, and frankly are interested in getting people to vote for certain candidates, NOT in informing the voters.
Speaking as an 18 to 24 year old.
Yes, a lot of people my age are uninformed. However, a lot of them are very well informed. I live in Canada, and while personally not really caring about US elections, I still know who the main candidates are. I know who the main candidates are up here in the frozen north as well. So do most of the people of my group of friends. Maybe I just hang out with statistical flukes, maybe not.
And on a slightly unrelated point, gratuitous obscenities probably aren’t the best way to convince someone of the validity of your arguments. I know this is the Pit, but still. There’s expletives, and then there’s swearing for the sake of swearing.