We just had one of the most successful elections in our nation’s history, and it could be a turning point towards a more inclusive and representative and highly participatory democracy or towards a return of Jim Crow and suppression of American’s voting rights.
At our nation’s founding, most of Europe was governed by hereditary monarchies with a subsidiary governing role for hereditary aristocrats. In much of the world, everyday people were characterized as peasants, peons or serfs bound to the land and to the dictates of the ruling aristocracies and monarchies, and having few or no rights at all. Our founding fathers rejected both the monarchies and aristocracies that ruled most nations in favor of a participatory democracy where all men are created equal.
Our Declaration of Independence boldly proclaims: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.” Our Constitution begins: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” We have struggled since our founding to actualize our nation’s founding principles of universal suffrage and a representative democracy.
Our Constitution provides for direct election of our own Representatives – the people’s House – “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States.” Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution
Over 120 years later, we amended our Constitution to provide for direct election of US Senators. “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years.” 16th Amendment to the US Consitution
We elect our Presidents both directly through our individual votes for President and then indirectly through the votes of each state’s representatives in the Electoral College. “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.” Article 2, Section 1 of the United States Constitution This ought to change to direct election of the President, but to do so will require a constitutional amendment.
Our founding fathers allowed our nation’s pernicious system of slavery to continue and flourish. We fought a long and bloody Civil War over the issue of slavery of our fellow human beings who had been brought in chains from Africa. We then amended the Constitution to abolish slavery, to assure the right to vote, to the equal protection of the laws, to the same privileges and immunities for all our nation’s citizens regardless of their race, the color of their skin or their ethnicity. Amendments 13, 14 and 15 to the US Constitution. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 15th Amendment to the US Constitution
After another 60 years of struggle and shortly after the conclusion of the First World War, we passed the 19th Amendment assuring women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” 19th Amendment to the US Constitution
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Southern states instituted a variety of voter disenfranchisement measures, including the poll tax, literacy tests, “whites only” party primaries and other impediments to the exercise of voting rights for their black citizens. These were outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The poll taxes and other state taxing schemes to restrict voting rights were barred by the 24th Amendment. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax”. 24th Amendment to the United States
Many states had initially limited voting to property owners – a restriction which steadily disappeared during the 19th Century. Wealth taxes as a condition for voting were generally outlawed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. where the Court said voting is a fundamental right of citizens, and state restrictions on the voting rights of US citizens are suspect and require special scrutiny. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/383/663/ The Supreme Court said “Long ago, in Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 118 U. S. 370, the Supreme Court referred to "the political franchise of voting" as a "fundamental political right, because preservative of all rights." Recently, in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 377 U. S. 561-562, we said, "Undoubtedly, the right of suffrage is a fundamental matter in a free and democratic society. Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized.”
During the Vietnam War, citizens over the age of 18 but under the age of 21 were being conscripted and sent across the oceans to fight and too often to die, but were denied the right to vote for their government. Congress passed the 26th Amendment enshrining the rights of all citizens aged 18 years of age or older to vote in federal, state or local elections. “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.” 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
In his 1954 State of the Union address, President Eisenhower, who had commanded all US troops in Europe during the Second World War, memorably declared: “For years our citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 have, in time of peril, been summoned to fight for America. They should participate in the political process that produces this fateful summons.”
What will we now tell our citizens who have persevered and died during the Covid 19 pandemic? Will we enshrine their rights to vote for the future of our nation, or will we try to take away their rights to vote, so recently exercised to telling effect?
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 3/17/21