"The Fight To Vote" by Michael Waldman is an excellent book. I read the updated edition. I learned a lot.
Prior to reading this, I had no idea what took place in the United States when it came to voting. I fear we all take voting for granted.
Voting is key to preserving our Republic. No one knows this better than the politicians. With notable exceptions, no one has done more to limit voting than the politicians.
The politicians who wrote our Constitution knew this and made sure to limit that power to wealthy, white landowners.
Women were disenfranchised from day one. So too were poor white males. Native Americans, slaves, and other ethnic minorities weren't even considered people.
Waldman documents the whole evolution of voting going back to the ratification of our Constitution and coming forward to present day, but that's not all he does.
You can't talk about voting rights without talking about the evolution of our government and the expansion of our country and the development of our industries.
You can't talk about voting without knowing the evolution of our political parties and how their evolution is tied to campaign "contributions".
You can't talk about voting without understanding the tactics used by politicians and political parties to secure their continued election and reelection - gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter eligibility, etc.
Waldman covers it all.
In his "Conclusion" entitled "A Democracy Moment", he breaks it all down in terms of current relevance/impact. He has sections entitled "Political Leaders"; "Political Parties"; "The Courts"; and "The People".
He helps us see how each of these "entities" contributes to the Republic as it now stands and now teeters on the brink of failure.
Our voting rights have never truly been a concern of any political party. They haven't been a concern for many of us either.
In recent years, both the Democrats and the Republicans have failed to make our voting rights a primary focus - a priority.
The right to vote has been driven at any particular time in our history by us, not our politicians; by sub-groups among us who understood what impediments they were facing in terms of their rights - sub-groups that began advocating for their own particular interests.
The United States is comprised of 50 separate states often with conflicting interests. More than anything state leaders want to preserve their state's "states' rights" and those rights are often in conflict with our personal "civil rights".
What a mess!
"It turns out John Adams was right in 1776: "there will be no end of it." Once again the story of American democracy is being written. The fight to vote is at the heart of American history, It is up to all of us to advance the fight and keep it at the center of the debate today, where it belongs."
Michael Waldman, page 304.
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
... "
Big Yellow Taxi lyrics, Joni Mitchell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20
Read "The Fight To Vote".
Maybe if we learn about the fight we've had in order to gain our right to vote, we'll appreciate it and stop taking it for granted.
Maybe if we do that we'll continue the fight to preserve our right to vote.
If we lose this fight, we won't be getting a parking lot, we'll lose our country. We'll get fascism.
Holy Moly!
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