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SUFFERIN' SUFFRAGE!
When "freedom and justice for all" rang out in 1776, voting rights [suffrage] in these United States were limited primarily to white, male Protestants over 21 who owned property. One year later, the state of Vermont declared that all adult, white males regardless of property ownership or religious preferences can vote.
When George Washington was elected our first president by the Electoral College in 1789, only 6% of the whole population were involved. Seventy-nine years later, following the Civil War, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted. It granted citizenship to African American males and made it legal for them to vote.
This was quickly followed by the introduction of poll taxes, grandfather clauses and literary tests in many Southern states to restrict the registration and voting of African Americans.
Women were discovered in Wyoming in 1890, the first state to include suffrage for women in their Constitution. Thirty years later, the 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution was passed -- one hundred and forty-four years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It took that long to for us to get the vote, but we could lose our reproductive rights in one election cycle. To this day, children are still taught in schools that all MEN are created equal.
It wasn't until 1947 that Miguel Trijillo; a Native American won the suit that requires New Mexico and Arizona to allow suffrage for the people we took the land away from. It took another 17 years before the 24th Amendment to the Constitution eliminated the paying of a poll tax before voting was allowed.
Still other barriers to voting were removed in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, such as literacy tests, and the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18. What was once denied to the many is now being ignored by the many. Young people have adopted an attitude of distrust in the whole government process and few vote or appear to care about much of anything except the gimme society we have created.
At this critical time in our country, and for women especially, a lesson in how very much votes do count is going on in a country in the Balkans. In Yugoslavia, where 75% of the people voted, keeping their democracy was important enough to go to the polls and then go into the streets.
In this country, the first presidential debate has been held. We noted how often George W. Bush used the C-word. A word that women have come to identify with as a promise and symbol of their personal freedom. Over and over, "W" said that he trusted the American people. He wanted them to have choices. He wanted them to have a choice in picking an insurance program, to have a choice to put some of their social security into the stock market. He wanted them to have a choice for a tax cut, to have a choice for prescription drugs. He urged choice and reiterated how he trusted the American people to make their own choices.
Then, when the debate turned to the right of women to choose, it was painfully apparent that he did not consider them part of the American people that he trusted or a part of the American people who deserve CHOICE. However, he planted in the minds of all who listened that he was FOR CHOICE. We do not think that the C-word was used accidentally. We believe that Bush advisors used it intentionally so women would come away from the debate conditioned to hear that Bush = Choice.
Sometimes things are not always seen as they were intended to be. Sometimes, benefits can accrue from a message of intolerance and hate. We have written about the signs reading, "TAKE BACK VERMONT" that were put out around the state by those who are against the Civil Unions Law. They intend that these signs remind people to vote for Republicans who will abolish this law.
However, tourists coming into the state for the fall foliage are telling us that we have a great advertising gimmick here. They think the signs are to remind them to "take back" some maple syrup or some other Vermont products. They tell us the signs are working!
2000-041
Copyright
2000 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished
for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that
this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@gendergappers.org.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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