In the 2000 Presidential elections, less than ten percent of eighteen to twenty-year-olds went to the polls to vote. If the majority of teens are going to use their eligibility to vote as a reason to lower the .
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drinking age, then the majority of them should actually go vote when it is time. At eighteen, most teenagers do not consider marriage, but for those who do, alcohol can cause major problems in their relationship. If one takes drinking too far in a marital relationship, violence, physical and verbal abuse, and eventually divorce will almost definitely result. Even though most teenagers do not consider being married at the age of eighteen, they use their ability to do so as a reason to bring the drinking age down. Liability is something that can affect most alcoholics in a very negative way. When teens become legally liable, anything that they do can be held against them, including drinking. For example, a teenager who is drunk at a party accidentally knocks someone down a flight of stairs, causing him to break his arm and leg. The teen is virtually doomed in court because he was drunk when he knocked him down. The ability to vote, to get married, and to be held liable are not valid arguments for the drinking age to be lowered because over ninety percent of teens do not vote when given the chance, most eighteen-year-olds do not even consider marriage, and drinking would only add to the problems of being held liable for crimes. Instead of complaining about the drinking age being twenty-one, teens should be petitioning to have the ages of voting, marriage, and liability moved up with the legal age to drink.
The last argument that teenagers use against the drinking age is that if they can be tried as an adult for crimes, then they should be given the right to legally drink. However, drinking can play a major roll in crime and promote violence toward others and one's self.
