Und dis kind of thinking helped us vin two wars!

[LogansPapa]

Germany Ponders Giving Children the Right to Vote
Elections | 09.07.2008

Every German citizen should have the right to vote in national elections, even those under the age of 18, says a group of parliamentarians. They've proposed a law that would allow parents to vote for their children.

Preschoolers have as much right to make their political opinions heard as adults, according to a bipartisan group of 46 German parliamentarians.

The politicians are outraged that approximately 14 million German citizens are shut out of the democratic process because of their tender ages, the DPA news agency reported. That means nearly one in every five German citizens is too young to cast a ballot.

Currently, Germany follows the lead of most other democratic countries in limiting voting to adults 18 years of age and older. Some German states allow voting starting at age 16 for local elections.

The idea has gotten backing from some members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the free-market liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). The proposal also has the support of political heavyweights such as the former minister for family affairs Renate Schmidt, Bundestag vice-president Wolfgang Thierse and FDP head Dirk Niebel.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3470938,00.html

[Cold Warrior]

Germany Ponders Giving Children the Right to Vote
Elections | 09.07.2008

Every German citizen should have the right to vote in national elections, even those under the age of 18, says a group of parliamentarians. They've proposed a law that would allow parents to vote for their children.

Preschoolers have as much right to make their political opinions heard as adults, according to a bipartisan group of 46 German parliamentarians.

The politicians are outraged that approximately 14 million German citizens are shut out of the democratic process because of their tender ages, the DPA news agency reported. That means nearly one in every five German citizens is too young to cast a ballot.

Currently, Germany follows the lead of most other democratic countries in limiting voting to adults 18 years of age and older. Some German states allow voting starting at age 16 for local elections.

The idea has gotten backing from some members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the free-market liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). The proposal also has the support of political heavyweights such as the former minister for family affairs Renate Schmidt, Bundestag vice-president Wolfgang Thierse and FDP head Dirk Niebel.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3470938,00.html

God, what a stupid idea. The heavy breeders will vote through every child support piece of legislation imaginable! :eek:

[LogansPapa]

God, what a stupid idea. The heavy breeders will vote through every child support piece of legislation imaginable! :eek:

For the Master Race - don’t you know.

[megimoo]

God, what a stupid idea. The heavy breeders will vote through every child support piece of legislation imaginable! :eek:Could it be,Doitze land uber alles ?

[Gingersnap]

They put this up for a vote a few years ago and saner heads preveiled then. Nobody really believes this has a chance.

[noonwitch]

We always had in-school, mock elections as kids during presidential races. It was to prepare us for voting when we were 18. In high school, we even used the real voting machines for our student council elections, which, as in real life, had a real low voter turnout (everyone always voted for the "class president" popularity contest, though).

My favorite and best remembered is 1972, when I was in third grade. Nixon won my class, 28 to 2. One kid voted for McGovern, and the other wrote in Wallace. Our teacher was very disappointed in us, but our parents all told us that if McGovern won, we'd get bused to inner-city schools.

What the germans are proposing is bad news. That's giving extra votes to people with kids-it's kind of like my grandpa casting my grandma's absentee ballot for her, instead of telling the county clerk that she was not mentally sound enough to vote anymore. As she died in November, I don't think he'll be able to do that this time. She still had enough soundness of mind to throw a fit in 2000, when she learned he cast the vote for Bush when she wanted to vote for Gore. He started the absentee ballot thing when she told him in 96 that she voted for Clinton "and you can't stop me once that curtain closes behind me".

[LogansPapa]

They put this up for a vote a few years ago and saner heads preveiled then. Nobody really believes this has a chance.

That's what we said about a black man running for president.