Should we take seriously a notion of Northampton exceptionalism? This idea — that we’re exempt from the usual rules and norms — came to mind last year when a proponent of massively defunding the police told the City Council that “if it can’t happen here, then it can’t happen anywhere.”
This is one way to look at our off-the-charts progressive cred and virtue signaling. I tend to see a different conclusion: if it hasn’t happened anywhere else, maybe it’s just not a good idea.
These different views can also apply to Northampton’s recent efforts to allow 16-year-olds and non-U.S. citizens to vote in municipal elections.
While these changes would require still untaken action from the state Legislature and a city referendum, the city’s Charter Review Committee, the unanimous City Council, Mayor David Narkewicz, and Mayor-elect Gina-Louise Sciarra have all endorsed both measures. Two high school students on the Northampton Youth Commission wrote a Gazette op-ed in support of the lowered voting age last week (“Vote16 would make Northampton a better place,” Nov 27).
I take a different view. The rest of the country got it right; these are just not good ideas.
Let me start with the proposal to lower the voting age for municipal elections. The writers of the Nov. 27 op-ed cited the following as reasons to support a lowered voting age: it would increase voter turnout, it would make young people more engaged and empowered in local government, and it would promote good voting habits that would continue throughout their lifetimes.
There’s a lot of supposition here. There’s not a lot of case history from which anyone could draw conclusions. There’s also a more fundamental issue: why stop at age 16? There’s nothing in these arguments that wouldn’t also apply at age 15, 14, or some earlier point of childhood.
All of these proponents of a lowered voting age are still just talking about a threshold, and they don’t make a convincing case that 16 is a better threshold than what we have today.
My sense is that the federal government got it right 50 or so years ago when it lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. This was consistent with the legal age of maturity (when someone, for example, can sign a binding contract), and the point when most Americans finish up high school and have their first experience of independent living. The change in voting age to 18 also dealt with the issue that someone old enough to serve in Vietnam should be old enough to vote.
Where, in contrast, are today’s 16-year-olds? Still living at home with their parents. They are youths, and not at the lifestage — adulthood — that marks the obvious threshold when voting on public issues and representation should begin.
The quest for noncitizen voting also falls short of a case for Northampton exceptionalism. The American flag still flies atop City Hall, and our voters share U.S. citizenship with all other voters throughout the country. Maybe this doesn’t mean much to you. Maybe you fancy yourself a “citizen of the world” or are even actively anti-American. Nonetheless, the responsibilities and rights of citizenship — including the right to vote — are pretty much the only common ground left in America.
Watering this down won’t enhance democracy; it will undermine democracy by adding to cynicism and apathy about government and public service. It will weaken support for more sensible progressive causes.
Keep in mind too that these proposals are partisan. Imagine if youth and noncitizens in Northampton were predominantly Trump supporters or even centrist Democrats. Can anyone then imagine that our elected officials and local activists would be so enthusiastic about the concept?
This is a case of Northampton elected officials seeking to choose their constituents, rather than the other way around. It is thus the flip side — and is no better — than the Republicans in Texas seeking to put up obstacles to minority voting in Houston. Moreover, it provides an excuse for those Republicans to do so: “Hey, they’re doing it too.”
The Massachusetts Legislature should reject these proposed electoral changes. If they don’t, I hope the citizens of Northampton will have the good sense to vote the proposals down in a subsequent referendum. These measures are breaches of good sense and fair elections. They don’t uplift us in righteous exceptionalism.
They just make us look silly.
Marc Warner lives in Northampton.