Celebrating Women's Right to Vote, Sunday, August 26, 2018, Prescott Plaza

It's well known by now that "Did Not Vote" won the last presidential election by a landslide. Women voters outnumbered men both as a proportion of eligible voters and in absolute numbers. The Democratic candidate, a woman, received about 29% of the popular vote. The Republican man who daily disgraces the office of President got there by attracting just over 27% of voters. Over 54% of women who voted voted for Clinton; only 42% did for you-know-who. Assuming that about half of the 44% of eligible voters who didn't vote are women, we can reasonably infer that women comprise around half of the party of "Did Not Vote."

The League of Women Voters of Central Yavapai County has just announced that it will soon celebrate the 19th Amendment, which prohibited state and federal officers from denying women the right to vote. With Women's March on Prescott and other co-sponsors, the League is planning a 4 p.m. march and rally on the Prescott Plaza on Sunday August 26, 2018.

Most won't care that the event honors the certification of the 19th Amendment into law on August 26, 1920 rather than its passage by Congress in mid-1919. Even less on the minds of participants will be the fact that the 19th Amendment was introduced to the Senate by a Republican, passed by a Republican-majority Congress (both chambers) and crossed the ratification finish line led by 26 Republican state legislatures compared to the Democrats' ten. (Southern Democrats firmly opposed women's suffrage; of the nine states that voted against ratification, eight were held by Democrats.)

Why did the Republican party of the day carry water for women's suffrage? Partisanship. The GOP sensed that women voters were inclined to be socially and politically conservative. Organized and motivated as they were, women had the potential to form a powerful voting bloc. Grant them access to the ballot box everywhere and watch the electoral clout of the GOP swell.

Non-college-educated white women voters voted overwhelmingly for the authoritarian, misogynist, you're-on-your-own regime that gave birth to Women's March on Prescott. They joined with white college-educated men to validate Republican social and political values at the polls. These women (and men) are not our enemies. But their anti-social ideology must be defeated all the same. That defeat doesn't end at the ballot box. As the existence of the 19th Amendment shows, it has to start there.

We've marched and we've signed petitions and sent letters to Washington D.C. and our state houses, and made our peace with imperfect liberal political candidates. Let's use the 98th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment to recognize how crucial electoral politics are to our daily lives. Before, during, and after the August march, if you hear someone dismiss women marchers as "merely" partisan, let them know you are being political, in accordance with your hard-won Constitutional rights.

[A list of sources for this essay is available on request from the editor.]

Popular posts from this blog

Prescott's Jan Manolis Will Invest in Ed When Elected This Fall

Why Linda Lutes Marches On

Why Amy Hurst, Chair of YC Women March On, Marches On