You mention targeted political pressure, but only in a vague sense; it almost seems like foreboding of something unknown, and therefore scary and threatening. It may not be for you, but for people who develop this sense of foreboding about everything unknown, this sort of argument can carry a lot of weight.
Anyway, this pressure already exists. It is how people already have formed political identities when they reach voting age, and are willing to defend them, even irrationally, against people of differing political philosophies. If they don't get it from the parents, or the teachers, or the media, they'll get it from their peers, who will have gotten it from the prior three sources. Protecting them in this sense seems like an almost insurmountable problem.
Or maybe I misunderstood what you mean by political pressure?
I'm not really trying to defend this argument, but if I was going to be a devil's advocate, I'd say that increased exposure to American politics might not be good for juvenile mental health.
On the thought of them being spared all of this, I run into more than a few tweens (wife's sister being one of them), who have taken positions on complex issues anyway, and defend them using the targeted messages TV ads and pundits throw around. Obviously, I'm not implying they understand the context of their arguments -- I can't help but worry most people don't -- but they have already formed an initial opinion about things.
I don't expect you to defend this argument -- it is just me thinking out loud -- but I wonder how much we're already seeing of the juvenile mental health effect of politics, since we seem rather ineffective at protecting them from it.
I believe this is true for most kids.
Given how much it pisses me off, I kinda wish I were still protected from politics.
Put another way: you're trying to deny them the opportunity to make a certain choice (that is, vote) for their own good. That is the definition of protecting someone from them-self.
I was pointing out, simply, that (whether right or wrong), being "protected" from politics is in fact protection from oneself.
Now, you may feel that children should be protected from themselves, whereas women should not. That is a perfectly consistent position. The grandparent seemed to be unclear that that is what you were advocating, and that is the confusion I was clearing up.