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14-year-old boy uses legal quirk to run for Vermont governor
- samschooler 8y agoDirect link to his campaign website (not linked in the article): https://ethansonneborn.com/ https://ethansonneborn.com/
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- TaylorAlexander 8y agoHah. The ‘legal quirk’ is that there is no age limit to run for this office.
- florabuzzword 8y agoTechnically, it looks like the minimum age requirement is 4. From his website, which is linked to in another comment: Is This Legal? Yes! According to the Vermont Constitution and the Vermont Attorney General, you only have to have lived in Vermont for 4 years or more on the day before the election. Ethan has lived here for 14 years.
- CobrastanJorji 8y agoWell, maybe. Conservatives in Vermont might argue that the minimum age is 3 years and 3 months.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ars 8y agoThat's counting from LMP, which is incorrect the way you are using it. It would 3 years and 3.25 months if you want to actually be accurate.
- Markoff 8y agothis would have pretty big chance in China actually and they are not Christians
- arcticbull 8y agoSorry for your downvotes, I thought that was very on the nose. Well played.
- zaarn 8y agoDepending on when you start to count as "lived in", it could be between 3 years and 3 months to 4 years.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- florabuzzword 8y ago>“...and is taking his place with the state's more age-appropriate candidates on the Tuesday primary ballot” Blatant ageism! uncommon != inappropriate I’m only slightly kidding. I am thoroughly impressed with his comments thus far and would like to hear more of what he has to say. On one hand, I remember thinking I knew a lot more than a I did when I was 14. On the other hand, he is not me!
- CobrastanJorji 8y agoAgeism over being too old is forbidden. Ageism over being too young is enshrined into our Constitution.
- marzell 8y agoI'd rather vote in someone who is young and perhaps naive, if they happen to be altruistic and are at least attempting to work for the common good to the best of their ability... in contrast to (some but not all) more experienced candidates who know how to kiss babies and work a crowd, but who are ultimately making promises they don't intend to deliver on, in order to gain a position of power for selfish reasons. At the very least, this guy probably has better written and verbal communication skills than certain well-known politicians... seems like a decent start.
- florabuzzword 8y agoYou make some fine points. I may appear gullible in this exchange, but so be it. I cannot disagree with you here. Consider me won over.
- logfromblammo 8y agoI've been really wary of novelty candidates since 2016. Probably best to go negative on this kid right out of the gates. Really play up the worst grades on his report card, and make him explain any unexcused absences. But on the upside, he probably hasn't ever even considered sexual harassment or racist comments. Yet. ~
- fipple 8y agoIf you read his quotes it’s clear that he doesn’t deserve to be bucketed with Trump.
- xiamx 8y agowhy is this downvoted?
- logfromblammo 8y agoNot sure. My intent was to draw a parallel between the fitness to serve of Trump and an 14-year old candidate for governor. If one is a serious, electable candidate, so too is the other, except the 14-year old might actually be a better choice, because it's still possible that he'll respect women and minorities, eat his vegetables, and earn the "Citizenship in the Nation" merit badge. With the speculation that Trump might have been defeated if anyone took him seriously as a candidate earlier and invested more in ads to discredit him, and in the current political climate where public bullying is accepted as normal, sure, you can go negative against a kid. And as he has no voting record, the only source material for attack ads would have to be his public school permanent record--or, as mentioned elsewhere, maybe the Discord chat logs for some MMO guild full of 14-year-old boys.
- meddlepal 8y ago> But on the upside, he probably hasn't ever even considered sexual harassment or racist comments. Yet. Have you ever been a teenager or been on an American schoolyard? That stuff starts much earlier than 14.
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- egypturnash 8y agoSomeone that young, my big question would be "who's advising you". Still, good luck kid, it'll be interesting to see if he gets involved in politics on a slightly less ambitious scale after this effort fails. Hope he doesn't end up Vermont's Goodspaceguy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodspaceguy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodspaceguy)
- robotmlg 8y agoGoodspaceguy seems way cooler than New Jersey's perennial candidate Jeff Boss: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Boss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Boss
- pandler 8y agoWhile we’re on the topic of fringe candidates, I’d like to plug my all-time favorite political contender: Vermin Supreme. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermin_Supreme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermin_Supreme
- CamelCaseName 8y agoI wrote in to Vermin Supreme asking for endorsement when I ran for hugh school president, promising to make a whole bunch of whacky and unsustainable rules. Unfortunately (and understandably) I wasn't elected, but getting to say that I was backed by a US presidential candidate over the PA system was fun. I still have his email printed out in a memory box somewhere.
- rosege 8y agoCheck out Rick Mercer - Talking to Americans. Its on YouTube. The whole show is great, but aging now. But he gets various members of congress to endorse Canada building a national igloo among other things.
- neic 8y agoThere is also Jacob Haugaard. [0] He was actually elected to the Danish parliament in 1994 on the promises such as better weather, more tailwind on bicycle paths and shorter queues in supermarkets. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Haugaard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Haugaard
- outworlder 8y agoCool, now he can apply for YCombinator. (They have, or used to have, a question on when did you hack a non-computer system to your advantage)
- jastanton 8y agoHa, in order to contribute financially to his campaign you have to be at least 18 years old. :) On a more serious note... why not? I would love it if my daughter/son wanted to do something like this. What a life experience! I am positive this will peak his interest / make him likely to be interested in politics / global & current events now because he's had this experience and IMO that's the best way to learn! Honestly, thats how I learned about software engineering, I picked something (a game) that I was extremely interested in, and programming was just my conduit to make modifications to the game. Only later did I learn that programing was interesting apart from that game and was the start of a big career. Good on him!
- ekianjo 8y agoYou should only do politics once you have done something in your life. At 14 you cant seriously claim any knowledge of anything about life, so the idea of ruling over others is extremely pretentious at an early age. Just like you would not be fit to manage a team of programmers at the same age.
- whatshisface 8y agoI doubt that anybody would even consider for a second making him the actual govenor, but going through the process of trying indicates that the kid has initiative and some understanding of how government works in his state.
- Aeolun 8y agoYet so many people do run a team of programmers at 18...? I’m not saying they’re necessarily successful, but...
- mreome 8y agoI wonder how many politicians only really have knowledge of politics, how many have an understanding of the Industries and Technologies they are regulating, and how many have any knowledge of what the reality of life is for their constituents. I think the lack of knowledge among our government representatives is a far larger issue then one person a bit short on life experience.
- znedw 8y agoIt's Ice Town all over again!
- irrational 8y agoHah, that was my thought as well! Do they need a new Winter sports complex in Vermont?
- jackweirdy 8y ago"Ice Town Costs Ice Clown His Town Crown"
- w-m 8y agoSonneborn. Great name for going into politics! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sonneborn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sonneborn
- JeffreyKaine 8y agoI love this kid! We need more like him, who are willing to put their ideas into action :)
- ajsharp 8y agoThis feels like a natural "rookie of the year"-esque extension of living in a post-trump, nothing matters world, and frankly I'm pretty excited about it.
- femto 8y agoPerhaps the incongruity isn't that a 14-year old is running for office, but that a 14-year old can't vote? A 14-year old has the maturity to run for office, but is judged to be too immature to vote? There is a cohort of children who are already more mature than a lot of adults. Most of the arguments about children being incapable of voting were once applied to women and aborigines. Maybe the rules should be that if a child is capable of engaging with the political process by registering to vote then they are capable of voting? Lack of representation means politicians care about children only to the extent required to get a parental vote. Take the lot of a child in my country (Australia): * Childcare is a political football. The primary aim of the system is to allow parents to work rather then provide the best environment for children. Excellence is a result of individual centres rather than a product of the system. * Children are taxed at 45%. If you want to prevent parents from putting investments in children's names, write laws about parents exploiting their children rather than penalising the child. * Schools are a political football, with politicians debating funding, testing regimes and curriculum and the children nowhere to be heard. * Old men (and a few old women) are making decisions that will affect the world long after they are dead. The currently disenfranchised children are the ones who are going to be stuck with the mess. Adults wouldn't (and don't) put up with it, so why should children?
- bri3d 8y agoOne argument I've heard against this is that kids are usually wards of their parents, sadly giving the parents a large lever to influence their child's vote.
- Arbalest 8y agoI had to re-read your comment to realise that I was about to state the same thing. Didn't tweak on the meaning of ward initially.
- femto 8y agoThe same arguments could be applied to any child/parent relationship. How many adult children are under the influence of their parents? The ballot is secret, so a child would be free to vote as they wish. Children would have to be treated as any other voter meaning parents should not be allowed to be in the polling booth with their children.
- gumby 8y agoGood for him! I like his position as well that being 14 should come last.
- glangdale 8y agoThere was a fascinating article that did the rounds a while back ( http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/04/her_hat_was_in_the_ring_a_history_project_reveals_that_thousands_of_american.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015... ) describing the history of female candidates running before female suffrage. Legally this is analogous, although I don't see us extending the franchise to 14 year olds. It's a pity, really, as I suspect allowing a 16 year old to vote isn't any more unreasonable than allowing a 90 year old to vote; especially on issues that are far more real to a 16 year old. At least in Australia a lot of the really abjectly dim climate denialism came from people who would be lucky to see all those 2030-2040 dates that folks toss around. Yes, I do understand that some older people are voting idealistically and not voting their narrow interests, but historically this is a very self-interested bloc.
- kovek 8y agoWould older people be more inclined to put effort in educating younger people if people over a certain age were not allowed to vote?
- glangdale 8y agoMy 12 year-old son is a supporter of denying the franchise to the elderly. He may just be trolling. Overall I think older people have collectively (yes, there are exceptions) shown a shocking lack of concern for the conditions of the young (education and otherwise). Collectively the grey vote has been overwhelmingly about preserving and expanding the role of government in helping out the elderly and everyone else can go to hell (while spouting endless mythology about how much they put into the system, etc). I doubt there's any way to educate (indoctrinate?) young people to vote for the big intergenerational wealth transfers that old people have collectively achieved.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- oldandtired 8y ago
- DoreenMichele 8y agoTo the people saying he's too young to lead, it is a child who says "The emperor has no clothes." The grownups know better than to say something like that. Sometimes, being young and stupid and not knowing that "you can't do X" is an asset.
- gammateam 8y agoWhat is the legal quirk here? What was the oversight? My PR company makes these counterinuitive clickbait articles about my products too, its great I just can't tell if I am supposed to be perceiving something or just enjoying the entertainment.
- squiggleblaz 8y agoYou don't need to be a voter to be a candidate. A bill was introduced earlier in the year to change that but didn't go anywhere, which is probably how he found out he was eligible. You just need to be a resident of the state for four years. No other requirement. In particular, no age requirement. The headline sounds like it's specific to him in some narrow way, but almost any 14 yo (or 4 yo) in Vermont is probably eligible to stand as a candidate.
- Markoff 8y agohonestly if there it's bottom limit there should be also upper limit or no limits at all, often if not mostly 17yo it's more qualified than 85yo with their set of mental problems (it's just statistic, don't take it personally) my stance regarding this didn't change in past 20 years and i still think it would be more appropriate to pass some general knowledge test for voters to benefit from democracy weighing vote strength based on paid taxes (with some upper limit) it's just distant dream
- Arzh 8y agoI personally don't like when people use legal quirks so he already lost my vote.