(IntegrityPress.org) – Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the youngest candidate running for the 2024 presidential nomination, has suggested raising the voting age to make American youth more patriotic and politically involved. While Ramaswamy has focused on engaging young people in the conservative movement, he also believes that young Americans are entitled and fail to respect the privilege of being an American citizen. He emphasized that the country needs to become a place where all citizens have a stake in creating and building it together, rather than being a country that people inherit. He also pointed out that the US is not a direct democracy but a constitutional republic- and that in of itself means something.
Ramaswamy further stated that the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1971 in the context of the Vietnam draft. However, today’s young Americans do not have the same civic duty, citing the 25% recruitment deficit for military service in 2022. He acknowledged that his proposal would require a constitutional amendment, which represents a “high hurdle.” Ramaswamy acknowledged that not everyone will like this proposal, and it will take persuasion to convince many of its merits- but according to him, he is ready to take on that challenge.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Ramaswamy is now polling at about 3% among Republican primary voters. He has presented himself as an outsider and the candidate who will further Donald Trump’s “America First” philosophy despite never having held a political office. In addition to proposing the idea of raising the voting age, he has suggested shutting down federal agencies such as the Education Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
As Republicans have struggled to attract younger voters, particularly on issues such as the environment and gun violence, Ramaswamy has criticized what he has described as a “national identity crisis” and says that all Americans should unite on the merits of our shared values and Democracy.
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