The Most Precious Right

[Playinghardball]

By Liberal Librarian

Did you know that until 1812, there were property qualifications to be met in order to vote in the United States? (All property qualifications were done away with by 1860.)

Did you know that until the 15th Amendment, non-white men couldn’t vote?

Surely you knew that Senators weren’t elected directly by voters until 1913?

Of course, women didn’t get the vote until 1920.

Oh, and about that 15th Amendment? Non-white citizens (e.g., African Americans) weren’t allowed to vote in most Southern states until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Poll taxes, which barred many poor from voting, were done away with only in 1964, with the passage of the 24th Amendment.

What these plot points in history show is that the right to vote has not been a broadly accepted right in the history of this country. When the Founders established the republic, the franchise was limited to propertied white males, as they had a “stake” in the nation’s success.

Every generation, the idea of universal suffrage gained momentum. But it has never done so without great struggle and pushback from the forces of reaction.

“Why should men who own no property be allowed to decide the fate of men who do?”

“Why should Negroes, who are below the Caucasian race, be allowed to vote on matters of national import?”

“Women are mentally unfit to cast ballots. That is the purview of men.”

Every time a proposition was made to include more people into the governance of the state, there have been those excuses. They call upon “tradition”, “common sense”, “natural order”. What they actually call on is bigotry, hatred, and greed.

Voting has never been free. It has never been given up without a fight. It has never been attained by a gentle word or a plaintive cry. Different groups of people have wrested the right to vote by sweat, by tears, by blood even, crying out that they will have a voice in the running of their own affairs, regardless of what those who hew to tradition will say.

And yet, now in 2014, we have a degenerated Republic.

There are estimates that 90 million voters will go to the polls today. That is up from about 60 million in 2010. While that is a welcome surge, that is still not even half of the voting age population.

Voting has gone from a right to be fought for to an imposition to be shirked off.

“Why should I vote? Nothing changes.”

“Voting for the lesser of two evils doesn’t interest me.”

“I’m too busy to vote.”

The excuses roll easily off the tongue.

I can understand if people don’t have the time to volunteer. That is time consuming, and too many people are burdened just trying to make ends meet. Likewise for contributing to campaigns.

But voting is the one weapon you have to make sure that you will struggle less. Voting is your weapon to aim at the 1% who want to impose a feudal system on this country. Voting is your weapon to make your voice heard, that you are not an expendable commodity but a living, thinking human being, and you want the state to work for you, not against you.

Voting is the citizen’s most precious right. It is the right from which all other rights flow. Not bothering to vote ensures that people will win office who respect none of your rights. Not voting abdicates your right to complain, to demonstrate, to be a citizen. Without the vote, all other rights are conditional and revokable. Voting is the sword one wields against injustice.

If you’re reading this on this Election Day, and are caviling about whether or not to go and vote, think of all the people who came before you, fighting, dying for the right to vote. Think of people around the world who take to the streets to call for the right to vote, to decide their own fates. Think that “the world’s greatest democracy” only functions if everyone’s voices are heard, not just those of the rich and the fellow travelers they bamboozle.

Vote, because it’s the one way you can proudly claim that title: United States citizen.

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/11/04/the-most-precious-right/#more-190480

[FSogol]

1. K & R. n/t

[Bandit]

2. I have but two Powers and I wield them as I choose.

I have a Vote and I have the Power to choose where I spend my money. It would be very foolish of me to vote all Democratic and then spend my money in a Republican establishment.. Those are the ONLY Power that I hold and many do not even have the Power of their vote. If they have ever been convicted of a Felony they may have lost the Right to vote. They NEVER lose the Right to Spend their money where they choose.

[Maedhros]

3. One factor in the shift in attitude that you discuss

is the advent of broadcast media and its use as a tool of mass psychology to generate a desired response from the electorate. Votes are no longer earned by politicians proposing sound policy, they are harvested using push-polls, propaganda and disinformation on a scale not possible 100 years ago.

Elections are decided by which "voice" in the media can drown out their opponent's. More money buys more advertising and a louder "voice." At the same time, public education has been purposefully dumbed down so as to render citizens more susceptible to political marketing. There is a reason civics is no longer taught in high school.

It's easy to feel powerless in such a situation, especially if one is actually interested in policy. Doubly so if one is constantly being told that one should ignore bad policy and vote anyway.

Despite all of that, I always advocate in favor of voting at every single opportunity. Our votes are the only levers on power we are given. Our challenge is how to make them meaningful again. Voting from a "go along to get along" stance will not cut it.