An Excerpt from Learn or Die: The New American Revolution
The Historical Fight for Universal Suffrage
From 1776 – 1790 of the original thirteen states, ten restricted voting to only male citizens who owned property. The other three states had financial and tax paying restrictions. From 1790 – 1850, of the thirty-one states, thirty states had property and/or property requirement and or financial and tax paying requirements for the right to vote. Even in 1855 there were still three states that a property requirement, Rhode Island, New York, and South Carolina. (Keyssar 340-348) The reasoning behind this restriction was expressed by John Adam, one of the shapers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, when he said,
“The same reasons which will induce you to admit all men who have no property to vote with those who have…will prove that you ought to admit women and children, for generally speaking women and children have as good judgement and as independent minds as those men who are wholly destitute of property, these last being to all intents and purposes as much dependent on others who will please to feed, clothe, and employ them as women are upon their husbands or children on their parents…Depend upon it, sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand to vote, lads from twelve to twenty-one will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions and prostates all ranks to one common level.” - John Adams in a letter to John Sullivan 1776 (Keyssar 1)
Even among males, the property restriction was prohibitive. For example, a study of New York State before 1820 indicated that 2/3rd of the adult males were unable to meet the property requirement in order to vote for members of the United States Senate and 1/3rd were unable to meet the much lower property requirements for voting for the legislature. Eliminating the property requirement in New York State tripled the electorate for the senatorial races and increased the number of male voters qualified to vote by 50% for the Assembly. Even then, however, attempts to restrict voter rights by other means intensified with the flood of immigration, the transformation of the United States from an agrarian society to an industrial society, and the growth of a large urban population.
The exclusion from the right to vote continued in large part for African Americans, Native Americans, women of all races, immigrants, the working poor, and citizens on relief. The property requirement was replaced by states throughout the United States by poll taxes, literacy tests, prohibitive registration and residence requirements, grandfather clauses, and laws that withheld the right to vote for naturalized citizens for extended periods of time after becoming citizens.
Quite simply, in the 1800s and early 1900s the vast majority of the American people, East and West, North and South did not have the right to vote in a country that was dedicated at its inception to be a government for, by, and of the people. It wasn’t until 1920 when women, who represented half the population, won the right to vote, but this was only after a prolonged and massive effort.
The following passage from Alexander Kyssar’s study, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States is very descriptive of that struggle.
“To get the world “male” in effect out of the Constitution cost the women of the country fifty-two years of pause less campaign… During that time they were forced to conduct 56 campaigns of referendum to male voters, 480 campaigns to get legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters, 47 campaigns to get state constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions, 277 campaigns to get state party conventions to include woman suffrage planks,30 campaigns to get presidential and 19 campaigns with 19 successive party conventions to adopt woman suffrage planks in party platforms and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses” – Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie R. Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics (1926) (Keyssar 172)
Even with the passing of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, the restrictions on voting based on race, class, immigration status, and ethnic background were still in place and effected women as well as men. It wasn’t until the 1960s that we experienced another major victory for universal suffrage, and that came with the inspired civil rights movement that courageously pursued social, economic and political equality in the face of violent opposition highlighted nationally by the shooting of James Meredith as he walked from Tennessee to Mississippi in what was called The March On Fear; the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church where four little girls, Addie Mae Collins (14 years old) Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11) died; and the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi during Freedom Summer; and the assassination of Martin Luther King that ignited the riots in Watt and race riots throughout the country.
Out of this turmoil and struggle came a series of voter rights acts and amendments that finally put an end to the major obstacles to voting right for African Americans in the United States. By 1975, the nation had witnessed a far-reaching legal revolution. What occurred in the swipe of a decade was not only the re-enfranchisement of African Americans but the abolition of nearly all remaining limits on the right to vote, i.e. poll taxes, literacy tests, pauper exclusions, and good character exclusions had all been abolished. Property and tax requirements for voting in special elections were eliminate, residency qualifications were drastically broadened, the voting age was lowered to 18 years old, language barriers were dropped, and for the first time in 1962 American Indians were able to vote in all the states.
For the first time in our history, after years of struggle and blood shed, after proving our worth as citizens by fighting and dying and working for our country, we had finally achieved universal suffrage only to see that it was an illusion, a farce, and that America is not a country of one-man-one-vote. It was a country of one-dollar-one-vote.
Money in Politics: One-Dollar-One-Vote
Money has always been a part of American politics, but today with the Supreme Court decision in Citizen United and Speechnow.org versus FEC, the doors have been flung open for unlimited amounts of blood money to pour into political campaigns, lobbying, foundations, think tanks, PACs and Super PACs to buy elections, formulate public policy, influence legislation, and rationalize greed.
In the one-dollar-one-vote system of politics in the United States, candidates for office campaign for years before the next election, and most of their time is spent on fund raising. It is estimated that members of Congress spend 30% to 70% of their time in office fund raising for the next election. (Long, Will) They do this for good reason. For example, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, during the 2012 election cycle the candidates running for a Senate seat who spent the most money won 79% of the time, and the candidates running for the House of Representatives who spent the most money won 94% of the time. (Hahn, Jonah)
It was reported by the Washington Post that according to the campaign finance watchdog opensecrets.org that 2.4 billion dollars was spent on the presidential election and 4 billion dollars was spent on the congressional races. With that much money, it was noted, that you could fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 15 years without any reliance on corporate funding, fix the Flint, Michigan lead pipe problem 30 times over or give every public school teacher in the country a $2000 dollar raise. (Ingraham) What would the record high $14 billion dollars spent on the 2020 presidential election buy? (opensecrets.com)
Where does the money come from? Most of the money comes from those who donate $2500 dollars or more, or 0.05 percent of the citizens of the United States. This means that 99.95% of the American population are not a part of the America For Sale campaign where all the important issues are bought up before they even vote. The buyers, for the most part, are corporations and the very wealthy. For example, according to followmymoney.org a not-for-profit dedicated to following the money in politics, in the last 5 years, the top 200 most politically active corporations in America spent $5.8 billion dollars on lobbying and political campaigns, and much of this money is dark money, meaning that like gangsters, corporations and the super-rich launder their money by channeling it through dummy non-profit fronts so that when the money comes out the other end into the hands of the politicians or lobbyists or TV political ads, it appears as coming from some innocuously named source dripping in false patriotism.
Evidence of the presence of dark money and the extent of the shadow that it casts over American politics is revealed in a study where by 2006, gray and dark money from outside money sources (i.e. PACS, Super PACs, wealthy individuals, corporations, and non-profit fronts) across 6 states, representing 1/5th of the American population, accounted for 59% of the money channeled into campaigns , and by 2011 only 29% of the outside money was fully transparent. (Long) A singular example of the extent the very wealthy are willing to go to buy America are the Koch brothers who have a net worth of $42.9 billion dollars and who budgeted $889 million dollars for the 2016 election. (Confessore)
In the words of our own billionaire president,
“I gave to many people, before this two months ago. I was a businessman. I gave to everyone, everybody. When they called, I gave. And do you know what? When I needed something from them, years later, I call them, they are there for me. And that’s a broken system.” – President Donald Trump
Cites
1. Keyssar, Alexander, The Right To Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, Basic Books, New Yo rk 2000
2. Keyssar, Alexander, The Right To Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, Basic Books, New York 2000
3. Long, Will, “How Much Money Are We Pouring into Elections?” http://followmyvote.com/ money-in-politics-facts/
4. Hahn, Jonah, “The Degrading Force of Money in Politics,” Harvard Political Review, October 20, 2015
5. Ingraham, “Christopher, Somebody Just Put a Price Tag on the 2016 Election. It’s a Doozy,” The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/somebody-just-put-a-price-tag-on-the-2016-election-its-a-doozy
6. 2020 election to cost $14 billion, blowing away spending records, OpenSecrets.org, October 28, 2020, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/cost-of-2020-election-14billion-update
7. Confessore, Michael, “Koch Brothers’ Budget of $889 million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties’ Spending, ”New York Times, Jan 26, 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/ politics/Koch-plan-to-spend-900-million-on-2016-campaign/
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