19th Ammendment and Equality
Aug 26th 2007ScottAmerican History & Politics & Wyoming & elections & patriotism
Probably one of the things taken for granted most often in this country is the power that We the People have. The third Tuesday of August (for Wyoming) and first Tuesday of November on even-numbered years where we get to take a sheet of paper into a booth, fill in an oval next to our favored candidate (or even write in the name of our favored candidate), and submit that ballot anonymously without fear of an authoritative back-lash for the choices we made.
Try voting your conscience in a Saddam-ruled Iraq. Everyone (i.e. liberals) loved to talk about how he got huge re-election numbers, nigh unto 100%. I imagine there was a healthy fear that if you voted “no,” you just might not get to “vote” in the next election.
Now look at Iraq. People turned out in huge numbers to decide who their lawmakers were going to be, who was going to lead the country, what the new Constitution would say. On top of that, they risked their lives doing it. Not because some spy agency was keeping tabs on who was going to the polls and who wasn’t, but because in the country’s efforts to democratize in the face of the naysayers, a war was being fought. Still, the threat of a car bomb or bomb-strapped kamikaze-type terrorist could not shut up the voice of the citizens. The people showed up to do their patriotic duty and I bet that an overwhelming majority of the voters that turned out were informed on the issues to make wise decisions.
