On July 5, 1971, then-President Richard Nixon signed the 26th Amendment into law, officially lowering the voting age in all U.S. elections from 21 to 18. Finally, a movement that began in earnest after 18-year-olds not eligible to vote were drafted into service in World War II, then intensified with Korea and Vietnam, was constitutionally codified. No more would our young people be demanded to serve their country while at the same time denied the right to have a voice in its political process. If they were old enough to fight, they were old enough to vote, the logic went, and back then it was certainly hard to argue against it with either your head or your heart.
Now, if youâre like me and you donât believe in a draft and you donât think itâll happen again anyway, you might have little issue with removing the right to vote from todayâs 18-20-year-olds, who resemble the Greatest Generation only in the sense that they have the same chronological age and possibly some vaguely similar physical features as their forebears did – like young-looking noses and mouths and whatnot – when they stormed the beaches of Normandy in â44. Sadly, far too few of todayâs young people resemble their predecessors in grit, sacrifice, courage, honor, or any other of the character traits that would typically define the torch-bearers of a great civilization…