The minimum age to vote, drive, and serve in the military in US Research Paper

The minimum age to vote, drive, and serve in the military in US - Research Paper Example Young adults from the age of 18 are allowed to join the military and defend the country, for example, during Vietnam War many young Americans from the age of 18 participated in the war. The legal age for alcohol consumption in US is 21, before 1984, the legal drinking age was 18 and it was later on changed in the course of the year to 21 through the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 (Koroknay 2005). The drinking age was increased because of several reasons that I will also explain this article. Due to the changes in the ages, I believe it is unethical that the United States government allows its citizens to vote, drive, and serve in the military a full three years before they are allowed to consume alcohol. Before 1971, the voting age in US was 21, Senator Kennedy raise the matter of the age arguing that it is wrong for young adults to join the military and defend the country but they cannot vote since the minimum age of serving in the military during that time was 18. Kennedy receives overwhelming support from the senators and he took the mater to senate committee for constitution amendment. The bill passed and the age was reduced to 18. Another argument was that young adults pay taxes when they buy any item, some work and they are eligible to be given driving license, so why can’t they vote. Many school students across US during that time were lobbying for the voting age to be lowered to 18. The president of the nation youth’s rights association argued that in the society, young adults take part in many things such as paying taxes or being charged of crime so they should be allowed to vote. He went ahead and argued that if young adults are allowed to vote it will add rea l meaning and relevance to social studies and civics subjects in school which taught before the age of 18 (Christopher and Dobkin 2011). When the voting age is lowered, it is a liberal action, this is because it will create more opportunities for younger adults to have a say in the formation of the government. If the age is increased, it will become a conservative action because young adults will not have the wisdom and experience to know what is good for them (Christopher and Dobkin 2011). This change in voting age is just a change in the liberal direction and currently people are changing their attitudes towards equality and rights. The critics of the idea argued that young people lack the required level of knowledge and complexity to make informed decision on electing leaders; many believe that young people can be swayed easily by politician to vote for them irrespective of their character. One of the main critics about the idea was Curtis Gans who is the director of committee fo r the study of American Electorate (). He thought that it is a dumb idea if the voting age was lowered to 18 since at that age, a person can be drafted and die for the country. At the same time, young adults at the age of 18 lack life experience and do not understand the issues facing a country in details. In the American history, the right to vote has expanded vigorously to be more inclusive, and this come as a result of hard political battle by the disenfranchised group who are demanding for political representation. When US constitution was drafted in 1789, only the white people was allowed to vote and later the constitution was amended to allow the black vote (Traci, Toben, and Lenk 2009). In 1920, the 19th constitutional amendment