Lowering voting age is misguided

I think the proposal by Democrat State Rep. Lou Lang to amend the Illinois Constitution in order to allow 17-year-olds to vote in state and local elections is misguided and has several pitfalls.

Simply adding potential registered voters by lowering the age and hoping for youthful enthusiasm regardless of intellectual development and maturity will not enhance democracy. The Feb. 27 Daily Herald editorial on this issue points out the current national standard has suited Illinois well. It is at age 18 that young men register for military service and most young adults leave home for college or enter the work force.

While some turn 18 in senior year and then vote, it is the idea that high school juniors would be voting for the first time that is problematic. The high school environment is a very close community based on neighborhoods and on school districts rather than college life which draws its student body very often from all around the country.

Peer pressure and the desire to fit in can be very intense and could lead to fad or group voting. Which young person wants to contradict his or her school friends and pull a primary ballot from the "not cool" party of the current election cycle.

More importantly, how about the temptation of teachers and coaches to begin pushing a particular point of view on these new voters? Much of what is in politics today is also part of the school curriculum. Such issues as the primary cause of climate change, the promotion of tolerance by changing the long-held definition of marriage, how should the nation's health care system be administered and the necessity of the Iraq war are all compelling issues for the young voter to consider.

David Horowitz's book "Indoctrination U" documents that the push is now on to have the country's public universities adopt an "Academic Bill of Rights" because of the tactics of some professors who advocate in the classroom for their own political agenda. Mr. Horowitz's book also explains that the problem of political coercion is also spreading to the nation's high schools.

If the state constitution is to be amended to allow 17 year olds to vote, there must also be companion legislation to prohibit political indoctrination of any stripe in the classroom and a process for filing grievances against educators who violate this principle. If this is not done then this whole idea of lowering the voting age is suspect as political opportunism to create one more captive audience for the liberal agenda of the Democrat Party.

Mike McKay

Wauconda