The Greenberg Brief: Recent Events Prove Youth Should Not Vote

Sixteen year old teens were under consideration to be given the right to vote locally in San Francisco elections, as 2016 and 2020 ballot measures; both efforts failed. Now, word is there is a push to put a ballot measure before the city’s voters yet again.

I remember the debate well. In fact, yours truly was selected the official ballot measure opponent, writing the argument against that age-lowering proposal appearing in the November 2020 voter guide, known then as Prop G.

But that’s precisely how the city has changed negatively since 2020, especially with Covid lockdowns, the George Floyd/BLM riots, the recalls of disgraced DA Chesa Boudin and three SF School Board commissioners, the doom-loop collapse of our retail sector, persistent and unregulated drug addiction, homelessness and unaccountable nonprofit spending, and most recently, the Israel/Gaza war featuring hair brained, hate-filled protests.

The historic events in San Francisco are reflected in two additional ways: This past March’s Super Tuesday elections of a “moderate” slate of Democratic Party local leadership seizing power from the previous majority leftists/socialists; and the city’s voters’ approval of two tough on accountability ballot measures. Media has portrayed these election results as proof the city is moving towards a centrist (gasp, more conservative?) stance. Youth voting is simply not seen as moderate, even for San Francisco.

Interestingly, apart from considering the aforementioned events since the previous failed voting age measure, one can simply cut and paste the opposition talking points from the 2020 voter guide into a 2024 argument. I wrote:

“Teens are children, legally. Parents are responsible for their children’s actions and to ensure their well-being.  They need permission slips to go off school grounds. Unfortunately, we see increasing evidence of San Francisco’s schools’ indoctrinating our youth, heavily politicizing so many aspects of our city’s issues and our lives, that a child does not receive the best information to make a truly informed decision. Potential bias is everywhere.” This statement from 2020 rings resoundingly true today.

College campuses are increasingly being taken over by lunatic, malicious antisemites bearing anti-American, ethnic cleansing slogans, symbols, costumes and hatred, damaging our institutions and vandalizing property. Bridges and freeways are blockaded. We still don’t know at this point how this crisis in education will resolve. We also don’t know how the majority of Americans can accept protest participants being part of civil society and gain employment in a meaningful way. It’s all a very unfortunate unknown. What we do not need, ever, is for this type of petulant, tantrum-throwing, Tik-tok brainwashed youth so easily and effectively influenced to be making decisions at sixteen years old by voting on such critically important issues like those facing San Francisco.