I still remember when I was nine years old and Nickelodeon came up with a following of the election between Al Gore and George W. Bush that was kid-friendly and gave a watered-down version of politics and what makes the president so important. It was educational and I felt like I had a small grasp of being a grown up. I never cared about another election since then, but at least I paid a little more attention than I used to.

In an interview with Jonah Goldberg, editor of National Review Online, he gave his rash opinions about how incredibly stupid the youth in America really are and that the voting age shouldn’t be as low as it is. And it reminded me of that time 12 years ago.

While watching, I thought it was the most obvious statement ever broadcasted because, yes; the youth are stupid in a way. Speaking as someone who is still young in life, I definitely think there are less than half of people my age who’ve cared about politics and have a mature understanding of politics and world issues since high school. Those are the ones who joined Model U.N. as their extracurricular activity and/or spent their time talking to teachers about what’s going on in the world because they know talking to their classmates would be a waste of time.

See, even us as the youth know we’re ignorant. But to condemn us and say we are dumb and not worthy of voting at our age is naïve for Goldberg, the guy saying we’re the ones who are naïve. Hey, we’re young and enjoying life before we have to be real adults and live in the real world.

Just because not all of us are mature enough to understand politics or even care doesn’t mean that the less-than-half of the youth should suffer. If the legal voting age changes, you might as well change the age of becoming a legal adult and the privileges that go along with it.

Or let the youth be as they are—dumb. We don’t need some guy to tell us that we’re immature and completely able to be swayed one way or another on certain views. We already know because we’re living it. That’s why those who matured faster than the rest of us don’t associate with people their age.

He does make one comment that made me laugh in surprise. When talking about politics and the youth favoring socialism over capitalism he said, "That’s something that conservatives have to work hard to beat out of them, either literally or figuratively, as far as I’m concerned.”

Sorry Goldberg, I’m pretty sure not many “youth” want you to spank them for being naughty.