Universal suffrage, a term we should all be familiar with. It means all citizens of a certain age should be allowed to vote in all elections. When this country was founded suffrage was extended to land owners of the Caucasian persuasion or if no land one could vote if the wealth you controlled was sufficient as a tax payer. So white and wealthy only. That is a oligarchic form of democracy and very limited but a step forward from the Monarchies and aristocratic controls of Europe where most families of Founders originated from. Next, it was extended to all white male citizens through Jacksonian democracy in stages by 1860 every state allowed all white male citizens to vote. African American males were given suffrage rights in 1870, with the 15th Amendment. The first Universal voting rights in a major country was New Zealand and years before we achieved it. Not until 1920 did women gain the right to participate in democracy, proves they were the lowest on this totem pole. These were all hard fought battles with conservative men and disdains of of equality a given in their circles, but the open view won out over time. Universal suffrage was a struggle that continued on the road to expansion of voting rights by inclusion of more citizens, until recently. Since the election of President Obama the voting curtailment by any legal means has begun. And for the first time in our history we regress on democratic privilege instead of progress towards inclusion. Being a participating citizen is what makes us strong and flexible. If we relinquish this move towards inclusion we are no longer a country to be proud of, for its populous ideas but limited in scope and narrow in its inclusion. Al this makes for a far more repressive place where the elite decide it all. Minorities offered less precincts and shorter hours and IDs required that are often tough to obtain. Women with a maiden name or married name are required to show both married and maiden last names in many places thereby frustrating women minorities and elders from the polls. This is a new direction toward the original voters, wealthy and white. These Red State leaders are killing our universal suffrage gained through blood sweat and tears... And we sit back and watch... Shameful
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:23:55 +0000
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