Why aren't women exercising their right to vote?

[prolesunited]

Here's an e-mail that I received. Perhaps some of you would like to send it to the women you know. Kick the thread back up if you do.


This is why we vote: Because we can!

The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic." They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thhus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on November 15, 1917 (a mere 87 years ago), when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food -- all of it colorless slop -- was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie "Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was -- with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use -- or don't use -- my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all over again."

HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum.

We are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

Please pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women.

[demnan]

1. I live near Occoquan

Funny, I don't recall ever seeing any plaque where this workhouse was.

[madrchsod]

2. who knows

most single women do not vote. if i could just remember the article i read that fact in..oh well, off to work i go.....

[PittLib]

4. The only thing more heinous than a woman not voting ...

is a woman voting with her husband. I can't think of any other reason to vote red, than a repug bully in your bed. Sleeping with the enemy!

[theHandpuppet]

12. Here's a worse case...

As a person who has done voter registration canvassing in both NW Virginia and the panhandle of WV, I have to tell you that I have encountered more than one household where the husband DOESN'T ALLOW his wife to vote! This pathetic situation is usually accompanied by Bible verses about a woman submitting herself to her husband's will. Although these disgusting excuses are almost always delivered by the husband with the wife standing by in mute acquiescence, one woman actually did tell me this herself.

Yes, the American born-again Taliban is alive and well, and if they aren't telling their wives they can't vote, they're commanding them who they should vote for.

Yet there is another reason women don't vote. By the numbers, young single women are the least likely to vote, and many of these include single mothers. It's an issue of feeling powerless in your own society and life. We have to convince these young women that voting IS power, and a right that no one can take away from them. It's one small step in the right direction.

So I'd encourage anyone involved in voter registration to canvass neighborhoods where young single moms comprise a good portion of the demographic. For their own sake and the sake of their children's futures, they must exercise this vitally important right to vote. Keep in mind that many of these young women may lack transportation and/or babysitters, so either offer a ride or an absentee ballot if necessary. Make very effort to reach out to them and empower their vote!

[PittLib]

23. I live in PA - it shouldn't surprise me ...

but I salute your efforts sincerely. I don't think I need mention the legions of women who readily subscribe to this type of oppression. I don't get it. I mean, we have choices, don't we?

[YankeeFan]

26. You're Going to Hate This, But..

I have an aunt who lives in PA too.

I asked her who she was going to vote for come November. She told me she wasn't going to vote.

She wasn't going to vote for Bush because of Medicare.
She wasn't going to vote for Kerry because of the way, "Keeps proving himself to be a hypocrite." When I last spoke to her, she was steaming mad over the shotgun Kerry took as a gift. There were at least two Federal Laws he broke if he kept it. One has to do with Interstate Transport of Firearms, the other has to do with the NICS Instant Background Check that everybody who buys a firearm has to go through.

Do NOT ever cross my aunt. She was a Democrat going back to FDR, but she will not tolerate hypocritical Dems much less than she will tolerate hypocritical Repubs. One she expects to be liars, the other better not lie to her except when you are fishing.

[PittLib]

27. wow ... all that vinegar

and no vessel to fill. Like a superhero with no cause.

[smirkymonkey]

22. Every single woman I know is voting...

and voting Kerry. However they are all urban, educated and over 25. Is there some kind of demographic breakdown? I know more apolitical men than women to be honest.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. GEORGE DUBYA REVEALS HIS TRUE CHARACTER

GEORGE DUBYA REVEALS HIS TRUE CHARACTER AS HE TALKS ABOUT WOMEN, REPORTERS AND POLITICS.

WOMEN: Though his spin doctors did a good job of hiding it during the last election, Bush has been known to display his true moral character when he talks to other men. At the Republican National Convention in 1988, he was asked by a Hartford Courant reporter about what he and his father talked about when they weren't talking about politics.

"PUSSY," Bush replied.

Is this is a sample of George's true feelings about women? (he was not talking about cats) Do we want this kind of person in public life? Bill Clinton had the decency to deny his infidelity to protect the reputation of his wife, Hilary. He would never disrespect women with language like this nor brag about current infidelity which would hurt and devastate his wife. He cheated on his wife because he let his libido control him, a weakness that Bill and many other men have and never will be proud of.

But by Bush saying he and his dad currently talk about “pussy,” he is clearly not referring to his wife’s. He is actually declaring that he has affairs which are too numerous to count. (Like Father like Son.) With this one single word, he is proudly admitting that he recognizes nothing except the generic female sex organ. He doesn't see any reason to reference women because he doesn't care what the female sex organ is attached to—it’s irrelevant. He doesn't even notice the woman. The female sex organ is just there to provide sexual gratification for him. He doesn't’t feel that women deserve the respect or decency of being referred to in the complete sense. It's too bad some texas women perpetuate this male defect by not correcting their husband's problem early in marriage, thereby passing it on to their son.

Most civilized, mature men with any class whatsoever (at their most banal, candid moments) would refer to women as ‘babes,’ ‘foxes,’ ‘chicks,’ or ‘hot women.’ This is because most civilized mature men with any class find the whole female as desirable in every way that she is feminine. Bush refers to woman by her use. Much more on this GREAT web site.......

http://www.tylwythteg.com/enemies/bush1.html

Bookmark, because it may be hidden soon!

[Warpy]

5. My grandmother and great grandmother were sufragettes

in New York. One of my mother's early memories was of marching with them in a suffragette parade in NYC. They fought for the vote, and they won. The vote wasn't handed to them graciously by kind men.

However, I do sympathise with my sisters who don't vote. It's not that their lives make voting so inconvenient that they are unable to get to the polls. It's more that they have much in common with males who don't vote, and that is that they've been abandoned by both the major parties who have decided that working class people who have been edged farther into poverty each year aren't worth worrying about.
Nonvoters know that neither party gives a damn about them or how they have been suffering under stupid economic policies and idiotic trade dogma for the past 40 years, and they're not about to care now.

In other words, we've had a majority of the population in this country declared superfluous overnight, and they know it, both men and women. They also know that both parties have been complicit in it.

This is the midset you're dealing with. Trying to guilt people into voting is not going to work. You have to give them something to vote for, and so far the DLC hasn't done that.

[Misunderestimator]

6. No matter what you think of Kerry, in today's situation, it's even more

important to care enough to vote against a certain someone... and we've got that in spades.

There has always been a better choice than not voting at all. And this post was not about guilting anyone to vote, but trying to bring awareness to a complacent voting sector.

Good thread, Proles, btw! :thumbsup:

[pmbryant]

8. Both parties? Recent history suggests absolutely not.

In other words, we've had a majority of the population in this country declared superfluous overnight, and they know it, both men and women. They also know that both parties have been complicit in it.

This is an idea that the GOP, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove would love for you to believe. But it is false.

Remember back to the 1990s and how the country fared under the leadership of Democrat Bill Clinton and compare that to what we have been subjected to under Bush.

Clinton: booming economy, taxes raised on the super-wealthy, but cut for the working poor, closing gap between rich and poor, the family/medical leave act passed, budget surpluses that pointed toward a future in which less of our taxes went toward paying off national debt.

Bush: stagnant economy, taxes cut drastically for super-wealthy, widening gap between rich and poor, crony capitalism run rampant, huge budget deficits pointing toward a future in which more and more of our (non-wealthy people) taxes merely go toward paying off national debt (with kickbacks to Bush's cronies).

The notion that "both parties" are complicit in abandoning the American people is effective, but false, GOP propaganda and we should not be helping them spread it.

Peter

[Warpy]

14. The country did fine. The stock market was booming.

Most people in this country did NOT share in the Clinton boom, only the investing class did.

Oh, there were plenty of jobs, but most people were seeing themselves get a little farther behind every year, a little more in debt, because wages were not reflecting those wonderful boom times for the investors.

You see, THAT is the problem. The DLC took economic issues completely off the table during Clinton's two terms. They offered people who had been taking an economic beating while the investors were swimming in champagne excactly nothing.

As long as that is the case, they can kiss the idea of winning any gains in Congress goodbye. Kerry might win this election simply because Bush is so colossally incompetent. But he won't win another term without taking on the economic inequality in this country.

[pmbryant]

15. Some hard data here

Ok, here's some real information on recent trends in income inequality.

http://www.inequality.org/pullingapart.html

And here's an excerpt(emphasis added):

"The fact that the strongest economy in 30 years failed to lower the level of income inequality reveals both the depth and the tenacity of this social and economic problem," said Jared Bernstein, EPI economist and report co-author. "Exceptionally low unemployment rates brought gains to low-wage workers and fairly broad-based wage growth, especially in the last few years of the 1990s. Still, high-income families gained the most in the 1990s, and inequality grew over the decade.

And here's a relevant chart:



I was wrong that income inequality decreased in the late 90s, but the trend of widening inequality definitely slowed during that period, and people at the bottom of the economic ladder experience real gains during that time.

This, despite the fact that Clinton was fighting against 12 years of Reaganomics and a GOP congress for much of his term. Unimpeded Democratic policies would do even better at reversing the trend of increasing income inequality.

In contrast, look at what Bush an the GOP have done over the last four years. In addition to lowering income taxes on the super-wealthy much much more than they did on ordinary people, they have saddled future generations with huge debts and completely eliminated the estate tax. That last change alone, once implemented later this decade, will go farther to ensuring class immobility than any other policy I'm familiar with.

I do not understand what you mean by "the DLC took economic issues completely off the table during Clinton's two terms," given the great economic successes of the Clinton years. If such policies had been continued post-2001 (or improved, if Gore had been given a Dem congress), we'd be in a much, much better situation today and into the future. There is simply no denying this.

Further point: when was the last time the minimum wage was increased, and which was the party that pushed for it? Which is the party that refuses to move on it now?

--Peter

EDIT: Bolded the crucial part of the quoted passage above.

[prolesunited]

16. Bottom line

Are you voting for Kerry? Are you encouraging others to vote as well?

Secondly, what are you doing and how do you think we can get the Dems to resolve economic inequality?

Last, while I won't disagree that the investor class did well under Clinton, so did a LOT of other people. You know, the ones who still had jobs and health care and pensions. Recent data indicates more children than before are in poverty. We may not have eliminated it, but at least it was improving. Tell me again the parties are the same.

[prolesunited]

10. That is a legacy of which you can be proud

But I don't know why you would actually encourage people NOT to exercise those hard-fought rights. Instead of allowing themselves to be marginalized, disillusioned and disenfranchised nonvoters need to be out there fighting to make your voices heard and take back the party.

I would like more than two parties as well, but that's what we have right now. Why not grow the progressive movement within the Dem Party? Look at what the radical right has achieved with the GOP. It didn't happen overnight. Explain to me how you or anyone else wins by not voting?

As far as the parties and candidates being the same, that's patently untrue and you know it. The only group that wins when people like us stay home is the GOP and there *is* a difference.

Women's Rights

Bush
Reinstated the 'Global Gag Rule' (on Bush's first workday in office and the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade) eliminating desperately needed international family planning funding to organizations that provide abortion counseling (or if abortion is legal in their country).

Banned the Republican termed 'partial birth abortion' thus making it difficult for a woman to have an abortion during the fifth or six month of pregnancy no matter what the reason.

Opposes Roe v. Wade and seeks to make abortion illegal.

Favors abstinence only 'sex education' programs mandating that there can be no discussion of STD's, condoms, or traditional family planning.


Kerry
Opposes Global Gag Rule, would immediately reverse Bush policy.

Opposed ban on 'partial birth abortion'.

Cosponsored Women's Health Equity Act, which ensures women of all ages receive information and access to the highest quality and most advanced health care.

Worked to require health plans to cover hospital stays for breast cancer treatment and to preserve and increase funding for breast and cervical cancer research.

Perfect Pro-choice record and will defend Roe v. Wade.

Supports requiring insurance plans to cover contraception and he will continue to fight to ensure women direct access to their OB/GYNs.
http://changein04.com/bvsk/bvskWR.php

[pmbryant]

7. Same can be said about all of us

Go back far enough in time, and none of us had the right to a voice in determining who our countries' leaders were. Amazingly, for women, this was recently enough as to still be in the memory of some people still alive. And, of course, for blacks it was more recently still.

Yet voter turnout in our country, for all groups, is notoriously low.

There has long been an effort to convince people that their voice "does not matter", either because it is insignificant or because "politicians are all the same". Those in power find it easier to control the people that way. Sadly, many fall for it.

This campaign continues today, though after the Florida fiasco of 2000, the message has morphed somewhat. After all, it is now clear to a hell of a lot more people that each individual's vote is very significant and that politicians are not all the same. So the new message is "your vote won't be counted", "Bush will steal it," etc.

We have to fight to counteract this. Hopefully such an email will help. A lot more is needed, too.

Peter

EDIT: Alas, the "politicians are all the same" mantra is being repeated again, here in this very thread! :-(

(EDIT again: typo)

[ieoeja]

9. He said women should "exercise".

Boy are you in for it. :evilgrin:

[PVnRT]

11. Good question

If they care about their rights, they need to start.

[Habibi]

13. My best friend

for nearly 30 years, has never voted. When I tried to get her to consider it last fall, she pretty vehemently said no. She feels she doesn't have a decent enough grasp of the issues to cast an informed vote (but when I try to discuss issues with her, she gets pissed), plus, she thinks both parties are full of hot air, so it doesn't matter one way or the other. I wish I could hit on a way to bring it home to her that voting is what helps make this country the democracy it (still, for now) is, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Kind of amazing, the people you wind up best friends with. We've been close for years, and I love her and respect her, but if I met her for the first time today, I don't know that we'd be friends at all. Still, I value the relationship so much I wouldn't jeopardize it over a political disagreement.

If anyone has any ideas about how to inspire the non-political woman to vote, I'm all ears. I see that this HBO flick is available on DVD--maybe she'll watch it and think things over.

[prolesunited]

19. Actually, I didn't see it

but I scanned over the Web site and read some reviews. It looks really powerful. Perhaps I'll get it on DVD as well.

Only $18.89!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00026L9CU/qid=1094855068/sr=2-1/103-0708197-5295009?v=glance&s=dvd

[Habibi]

20. Might be a "house party" excuse, eh?

Get a bunch of your non-political gal pals over, feed and lubricate them well, have some voter reg forms handy--say, this could be fun!

[PittLib]

25. My best friend ...

would be a libertarian - if it made sense. Years ago, in college I made a joke about gun control, assuming that she would never support the NRA. But when it came down to it, she said she would shoot someone for trying to steal a spoon. Quite frankly, I don't know her stance this year, and I'm not sure i want to ... I love her that much. But I do understand the frustration.

[bleedingheart]

17. Because they fall victim to the "Strong women are bad complex"

I remember my uncle telling me as a young gal that "boys don't like smart girls"...because he thought I was too focused on my studies...and I replied..."Smart boys like smart girls"....which pissed him off.

[prolesunited]

18. No kidding!

Who wants a dumb boy?

[Yupster]

21. In 2000, 52 % of the voters

were women.

From CNN's Exit Poll


Vote by Gender

all Gore Bush Buchanon Nader

Men... 48 %...42 %...53 %....0 %.......3 %
Women 52 %...54 %...43 %....0 %.......2 %

Edit to put the ...'s in to try to make the table look like a table. Wish I had an electric typewriter insteaqd of one of these stupid word processors.

[realFedUp]

24. Register these women in front of gyms, Starbucks and Cingular stores

Express, Old Navy stores....find em where they are.
Scare them.