What would suffragists think 100 years later about American politics? | Opinion – Tennessean
opinion
Keel Hunt Columnist
Published 10:59 AM EDT Aug 21, 2020
On Tuesday, we observed the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the landmark in U.S. history that gave women the right to vote. We especially celebrate this in Tennessee, the 36th state that put our nation over the top for ratification.
And, as it turns out, two concurrent news events also have vividly reminded us why the 19th has been so important in American life for so long:
- On a high road, Sen. Kamala Harris of California has become the first woman of color to be a national party’s candidate for vice president. Democrat Joe Biden announced she will be his 2020 running mate. (One imagines the old suffragists smiling at this news.)
- President Donald Trump, on a somewhat lower road, said he aims to keep the U.S. Postal Service from helping citizens vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. (A big turnout seems to worry him.)
These two events have brought into a sharp focus anew the high stakes for democracy in this strange election year.
Remembering the suffragists of 1920, what might they make of these developments? If they could observe our current political scene a century after their triumph for broadened civic participation, what would they say?
I believe they would celebrate the Harris news as good progress whoever wins this November and that they would scoff at Trump’s Postal Service gambit as a case of shameless corruption.
‘Have you learned nothing in the past century?’
I phoned Elaine Weiss, author of “The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote.” Her splendid book has become the new definitive history of the suffrage fight for the 19th Amendment, including Tennessee’s role in it. When I put my question to her, she minced no words.
“They would shake their heads and ask us, ‘Have you learned nothing in the past century?’
“They would be disappointed,” she continued, “that a citizen’s right to vote is being suppressed — and not by rogue elements but by our legislatures and by whole portions of our political apparatus. I think they would shake their heads at the very idea that letting all citizens vote is debatable again. We’ve fought wars to protect our democracy, to defend it, but in our own democracy we see complacency about what that means.”
Weiss brings a personal perspective, too, to this current Postal Service scandal: Her father was a mail carrier.
Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.
“I was nurtured and raised in the Postal Service,” she told me. “He would be angry about this. He’d be writing letters. He’d be in the streets, if necessary. This is blatantly manipulative. It’s a federal crime to impede the delivery of mail, you know.”
Where was it written that our nation’s post office must make a profit? Certainly not in the U.S. Constitution. The delivery by mail of medicines, Social Security payments, veterans benefits, relief checks, even ballots is a public service, akin to a public utility, not a for-profit business.
Our leaders must act, not just spew divisive rhetoric
No surprise that the Postal Service enjoys enormous popular support. Only the most narrow-gauged and venal of politicians should have been surprised that gaming it for one election might trigger the scale of alarm that Trump ignited recently.
Anyone who thwarts this essential service — through sabotage, theft or manipulation — ought in fact to be arrested, then thrown into the nearest stockade.
The suffragists dealt with many types of politicians, high and low. Among their campaign tactics and tools were simple slogans to keep the message of their movement shining, and especially three words: “Deeds Not Words!”
From Washington to Nashville they directed this slogan, ultimately to historic effect, at presidents, congressmen, governors and state lawmakers. Evasion and empty, stalling rhetoric would no longer do — and against injustice never will.
Still words to live by — “Deeds Not Words!” — whenever facing down a dissembling, desperate politician.
Keel Hunt is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network – Tennessee and the author of two books on Tennessee political history. Read more at www.KeelHunt.com.
Published 10:59 AM EDT Aug 21, 2020
