{"id":145707,"date":"2016-04-24T20:07:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T02:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=145707"},"modified":"2016-04-25T09:47:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:47:57","slug":"voting-is-a-revolutionary-act-just-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/04\/voting-is-a-revolutionary-act-just-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting is a revolutionary act. Just do it."},"content":{"rendered":"
\""Voting<\/a>

Tom Arthur \/ Creative Commons<\/p>

“We all have a voice in choosing our leaders,” the author writes. “It’s up to us to use it.” (photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>People have died and been beaten and jailed for your right to vote. No, not just military people — plain ordinary folks who understood how powerful the vote is.<\/p>\n

The names Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney<\/a> no longer ring a bell for most folks. They were three civil rights worker killed in Mississippi in 1964 for helping African Americans register to vote. Their deaths helped propel the Civil Rights Act to passage that same year.<\/p>\n

\"Claudia

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Claudia Anderson<\/p><\/div>\n

No one remembers Alice Paul either. She was\u00a0beaten and arrested in front of the White House. She, and those arrested with her, joined in a hunger strike and were force-fed.\u00a0Eventually after a public outcry they were released, and President Wilson came out in favor of the passage of the 19th Amendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, in 1972, in a remarkable show of national unity, the 26th Amendment passed in less than four months, the swiftest ratification of any of the amendments. \u201cOld enough to fight, old enough to vote\u201d<\/a> struck a chord. Not to mention the fact that by age 18 most people are paying taxes. With that passage we reached universal suffrage of all adult citizens.<\/p>\n

Yet today voting is under attack from all sides, it seems. Apathy is the No. 1\u00a0problem. Voter turnout in 2008 was at a high, still only 57.1 of the voting eligible population. Then it\u00a0fell to 36.4 in 2014<\/a>. This issue can only be solved by education, reminding everyone that voting is not only a right under our Constitution, but\u00a0the civic duty of every citizen who enjoys the freedoms of the United States.<\/p>\n

We all have a voice in choosing our leaders. It\u2019s up to us to use it.<\/p>\n

Harder to pin down is the growing notion that not everyone should vote. It\u2019s been around for awhile, evident in calls for stricter laws governing voting, and in some cases advocating for things like literacy tests.\u00a0In 2010 Tom Tancredo made such a proposal<\/a>\u00a0despite the fact that such tests were banned in 1964 in the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n