American Youth - Stay Home!

Here is what scares me about this election - the youth vote. While youth are necessary to infuse nations and organizations and societies with energy, enthusiasm and fresh ideas, they are also inexperienced, naive and to put it bluntly, dumb. I was all three when I was a 'youth.' All youths are, no exceptions. Life and living are the only things that make one experienced in life. With age comes wisdom, not from intelligence but from life history, or living through events and experiencing things and remembering them, and either striving to avoid or repeat them throughout life. I made many stupid mistakes in my youth, mistakes which stuck with me and made me grow into the responsible adult I am today. Older generations are labeled 'out of touch' and 'crotchety' by youth because we know things they don't. It's my greatest frustration as a parent. If only I could infuse my children with the wisdom and knowledge I have gained by making mistakes, they would certainly grow up to be kings and queens. Or president; we are a republic after all. EJ Dionne spews the same old lefty hopes that the youth will save the day on election day. He was probably one of those young people who was inexperienced yet thought he knew it all, knew better than his experienced elders. The youth of today are dumb, just like we were in our youth (BTW, I am turning 39 next week). I fear the youth vote; it's better they just stay home, play video games and text their significant others and leave the electing of presidents to those of us who know something about life, death, war, finances and children.