Awhile back, I posted an article about allowing young people to run for congress and other public offices. I was surprised to receive so much backlash especially from members of the Daily Kos.
I argued that young people should have the right to run for public office at a federal and state level at the age of 18 when they are old enough to vote; however, so many people claimed that I was being ridiculous. This seems to be a common paradox, especially on the left. You see so many liberals and left-leaning people rant on and on about how we need to get the young people out to vote, but yet, they are not willing to give the young people a voice to express their concerns. How can you expect to get out young voters when your attitude is to keep them from taking an active role in the political process?
So many readers tried to use "experience" as a counter-argument. This "you don't have experience" argument is one that I get often when I tell people that I am planning on running for Governor of Illinois when I turn 25.
But what is "experience?" Is experience simply something you just gain from being alive; the answer is no. People tend to link experience with age; although the two often go hand-in-hand, they are not directly proportional. So I can argue that some young people take on a lot of responsibility and do great things, and as a result have more experience than those who may be older than them.
The biggest issue that I have is how people (even on the Daily Kos) define "experience". The question that I get asked most is "What business experience do you have?" And this the question that makes me lose hope for people who go out and vote. Why is that we put so much emphasis on how much business experience that someone has? Isn't this the mentality that got us where we are in this country right now in the first place. Everywhere you look in Congress, you tend to see businessmen and lawyers; this the same demographic that exists among presidential candidates. All of the presidential candidates love to talk about the successful businesses that they managed, and so many voters make this the main issue to pay attention to.
I think that we have enough business people in government. And I'll be honest with you, I don't have much business experience, but that does not mean that I lack experience.
I'm currently a college student finishing his bachelors in Physics with a minor in mathematics; but that doesn't mean that I can't run a country simply because I decided to study science instead of business. And it also doesn't mean that I lack experience regardless of my field of study and age.
Yes, I haven't inherited or ran multi-billion dollar enterprises, but the experience I have is still relative. Instead of running a business, I've spent my time in college building political organizations and starting political clubs, I've spent my time starting scholarship funds for people who can't afford to go to school. I spent my time marching in the streets fighting for justice, I was serving as editor-in-chief of a college newspaper as well as serving as president of political groups and the physics group.
I can guarantee that my experience is more relative to the average person than someone like Mitt Romney. Unlike Mitt Romney, I know what it is like to stay up at night worrying and trying to find a way how I was going to pay for school each semester. Unlike like Mitt Romney , I work a minimum-wage job while in college and struggle to pay bills such as car insurance.
So maybe my experience is not like that of the typical businessmen who run for office, but do not tell me that my experience is worth any less; because I can guarantee you that my experience is more similar to those of everyday people that vote. So, I might actually consider the needs to the people as a politician rather than a business, and if that makes you upset than don't vote for me, but don't you dare tell me that I'm too young and that I lack experience because young people can struggle just as much and do just as much as the older people.
And if you really want to get young people out to vote, and to get them involved, you have to give them an opportunity to speak and take part of in the political process. You can't tell young people "We want you to vote, but we don't want you to actually take part in the political process because you're inexperienced and your issues don't matter."
So, I am running for Governor of Illinois when I'm 25 and I don't care how many people claim that I'm crazy and that I'm too young. I'm passionate and that is all that matters.