You Call This Democracy?: Chapters 9–12

Then in 1971, the U.S. Congress passed the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. The main impetus was the Vietnam War.

People objected to the country drafting eighteen-year-olds to fight without allowing them to vote.

One argument against lowering the voting age is that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds aren’t competent to make informed choices during an election.

Decision-making when emotional, tired, in a group, under pressure from others, or in a hurry is called “hot” cognition.

Decision-making in a calm situation when there is ample time to think and consider the facts is considered “cold” cognition.

Assessments out of Rutgers University suggest that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are just as informed, know as much about government, and pay attention to the news with similar frequency as the eighteen-to-twenty-five-year-olds who currently have the right to vote.

“You know, lots of people ask me: ‘What can you, Tyler Ruzich, do for people my age?’” he said. “In [Alexander] Hamilton’s time, someone my age could be commander of a frigate.”

Some people worry that sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds will just vote the same way their parents vote. But independent thinking is a hallmark of this stage of life, says researcher Daniel Hart of Rutgers.

Concerns that young people will support only one party are also unfounded, research suggests. Young people are not yet loyal to one party, according to research by Peter Levine, a professor of citizenship and public affairs at Tufts University.

When Takoma Park first lowered the voting age to sixteen, the overall voter turnout was an abysmal 10 percent.

That’s an abomination.

Only one state legislature in history—Nevada—has ever reached parity or majority-women status.

To delve deeper into the dynamics of diverse decision-making, researchers at Tufts University studied how all-white jury panels performed compared to panels of people with a range of racial backgrounds.

In reviewing recent research on diversity, Scientific American notes that “simply interacting with individuals who are different forces group members to prepare better, to anticipate alternative viewpoints and to expect that reaching consensus will take effort.”

When Tammy Duckworth became the first senator to give birth while in office, the Senate unanimously voted to allow babies under age one on the Senate floor. Adjustments such as these have the potential to “shift paradigms” for females considering public office, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“It’s the height of hypocrisy,” says Jeannine Lee Lake, who eventually lost her bid. “We bring millions of voters into these campaigns and we’re getting no love.”

“Politics is not the kind of open, competitive playing field we’d like to think of it as. It’s more like trying to be inducted into a fraternity,” says Reflective Democracy Campaign director Brenda Carter.

“Politics is not the kind of open, competitive playing field we’d like to think of it as. It’s more like trying to be inducted into a fraternity,” says Reflective Democracy Campaign director Brenda Carter.

Some party officials are especially leery of putting forward a candidate of color in a predominantly white district.

The way that multiple forms of inequality and disadvantage overlap to create additional impediments is called intersectionality.

Women were given the right to vote in 1920, just a hundred years ago. Native Americans were barred from voting until 1924. Naturalized Chinese Americans weren’t allowed to vote until 1943. That is not very long ago.

People of color are often peppered with questions about the origin of their names or their background (“Where are you really from?”) while women encounter more critiques of their appearance, mannerisms, and family life than most male candidates.

I'm not naive. I know that race is a factor, and I know that racism is a factor. But I've always thought once you've said that, where does it leave you? You need a strategy to deal with it.
—Former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice

But in 2018, a poll of nonvoters by Suffolk University and USA Today revealed that nonvoters span the political spectrum, with 17 percent identifying as liberal, 29 percent as conservative, and 36 percent as moderate.

And the Pew Research Center found that six out of ten intermittent voters of all ages don't vote because they don't know enough about the candidates.

If all states reach even 75 percent compliance with the Motor Voter law, 18 million more people would be registered to vote in just two years, according to a study by Demos.

“Each of us has faced fierce criticism from our respective party colleagues for promoting a reform that would supposedly advantage our partisan foes,” they wrote. “And within each major party are factions that clearly prefer low-turnout elections, especially in party primary contests.”

“Polling place lines? Gone. Photo ID laws? Rendered moot,” they report. “Election integrity is ensured by checking every voter's signature on the return envelope against voter registration records."

The biggest hurdle that our communities have is cynicism—saying it's a done deal, who cares, there's no point to voting.

We enjoy the right to free speech, the right to gather with others, and the right to air our grievances to our government. These freedoms underpin the greatest strength of our democracy—that it was designed to evolve as the will of the people evolved.

The reporters found that “social change in the U.S. appears to follow a pattern: A few pioneer states get out front before the others, and then a key event—often a court decision or a grassroots campaign reaching maturity—triggers a rush of state activity that ultimately leads to a change in federal law.”

The reform group Citizens Take Action says: "Though passing a constitutional amendment may sound like an almost unprecedented step, nearly every generation of Americans except ours has done it! We are the only ones who haven't used this valuable tool and it's time for us to get to work because the fate of our democracy is too important to leave in limbo."

The reform group Citizens Take Action says: "Though passing a constitutional amendment may sound like an almost unprecedented step, nearly every generation of Americans except ours has done it! We are the only ones who haven't used this valuable tool and it's time for us to get to work because the fate of our democracy is too important to leave in limbo."

Lobby Days often include training, talking points suggesting what to say, snacks, and lots of camaraderie.

Citizen activism is on the rise. Nearly half of registered voters reported contacting a member of Congress within the last five years, according to a recent survey.