Unwise

Three years ago, when I was in grade 8, I witnessed a boy win the student election at my school by giving a speech about turtles. Like all the other candidates, he got up on stage and recited a carefully written speech about turtles entering the salt water of the beach from their sandy birthplace. He then made the correlation, the connection, the metaphor that all of us kids are turtles entering the ocean that is high school. As he spoke, he trembled and shook the way a leaf does when hit by a raindrop. He stammered and stuttered the way a toddler does when lying to his mother about stealing cookies from the cookie jar. Sweat dripped from his forehead the way juice drips from a rotisserie chicken. His speaking skills were inadequate to say the least, and he was petrified, yet he went on to win the grade 8 presidential election. His win was purely based on his creatively themed speech. His charisma, his thoughts, his future actions were not addressed in the slightest in his speech. Not one of my peers cared about what that boy was going to do to bring change to our school, nobody cared about how he would improve our grade's position in school decision making and nobody cared about what kind of person, and more importantly leader, that boy would make. The only thing that that group of 13-year-olds cared about was the hilarity of their peer's speech. 

I'll give credit where credit is due however. That boy earned his win because he knew how to appeal to a group of his peers. He was clever. He knew that any young adults would enjoy his funny speech. He knew that any adolescent child would rather listen to a guy talk about cute turtles and make them laugh, rather than listen to a boring speech of someone's vision for a better future - and I commend him for that.
This little anecdote is what brings me to my point: the legal voting age.
I have read countless articles written by children of my own age boasting the benefits of allowing those under 18 to vote. I have even read articles by adults insisting that children are capable of making a serious choice in an election. Some of my peers have gone so far as to say that they feel that all children, as of age 16, should and would be excited to vote and inform themselves about politics. I, however, disagree, and with each pro-lowering-the-voting-age paper I read, I feel a sense of immaturity, rebellion and even disgust.
I am repulsed by the Napoleonic attitude of my generation and their absolute certainty in their decisions.
Feelings aside, I would like to bring forward a series of arguments as to why children of my own age should not be able to participate in one of society's most important and defining functions - elections.
From the story I described above, one can conclude that children have an issue separating entertainment from reality; a problem which can encourage a party to alter the focuses of their campaign.
Well, okay, maybe not change everything, but definitely some things. It is undeniable; parties would have to endeavour to gain the votes of the young. Surely, they would attempt to create a campaign based majorly in social media, as that is what we youth spend most of our free time on. Surely, they would attempt to make a profound and thought-provoking campaign, but the question remains: what would they do after their mature campaign failed? Would they allow the youth's votes to go to waste? Would they change their campaign to appeal to the masses of the youth, hence risking the revocation of older peoples' votes? Or, would all those children's votes become the votes of their parents?
Regardless of your opinion, I'd like to provide another example:
During a debate with one of my peers on the subject, I was faced with a question: "You and I are perfectly capable of making an informed vote, so is it not arrogant and wrong of you to assume that the rest of the kids here can't?" An excellent question, which I believe I answered with an equally excellent response. I figured that words could simply not express and disprove my peer's theory as well as an example could. Considering the fact that we were in school on our lunch break, it was very easy for me to pull aside a child to use as my example. A sandy-haired, pale and muscle-less boy was in the middle of his enormous sub sandwich when I pulled him aside and asked "If you could vote in the next election, which party would you vote for?" After a series of "umms", "whats" and "uhhs", his response was exactly what could've been expected from the average adolescent boy. "The Awesome Party". I responded by inquiring about what was important to him. "Video games" was the ideal response to cement my point to my peer.
The sad truth is that that boy represents the masses of my generation. Despite the fact that I have met a multitude of clever, witty, smart and well-informed children my own age, I met far more who are dumb. So, to those that argue that not allowing youth to vote deprives them of expanding their horizons, getting involved in their community and expressing themselves, I disagree. I think that disallowing youth to vote actually prevents all the stupidity that could come out of my age-range.
And let me just pre-emptively address an issue which is sure to arise: Allowing 16 year olds to vote, is not going to encourage them to get involved in politics. We see this through history in countless like-examples.
Lastly, my opinion changes on a whim. I have a different view on a different subject on a near daily basis. Take my future, for example. I am never sure what I want to do after high school. I feel like I have a general idea, but nothing concrete. So should someone like me truly be able to vote - only to make a decision I could regret the next day?
So, why the long post about why kids shouldn't be allowed to vote? Because of the boy who won the student election? No. Was it a big deal? No, being the grade representative of the youngest high school grade does not change the course of humanity, nor does it have a tremendous impact on a student's life. The truth is that teachers and administrators continue to make the majority of the important decisions. Student council is more a way of providing false hope and assurance to children that they indeed are equal to the rest of society. But what that speech was, was a testament to the immaturity and the incapability of youths to make serious decisions.