(These pictures taken from the Lepage center website)
Director Steinhauer opened general questions to the panel by asking if the Founding Fathers could have imagined contemporary U.S. democratic process, explicating the as-of-then unspoken fact that women across all races were also denied the vote prior to the Women’s Suffrage movement of the early twentieth century.
Dr. Freeman did not hesitate to say that, no, the men who made up the legislative bodies of the early United States would not have conceived of the current republic. She mentioned that, like African-Americans, women briefly had the vote in New Jersey – ambiguous language in New Jersey’s 1776 constitution gave them the right to vote, and the 1790 legislature added “her or she” to clarify the position.[1] However, in 1807 suffrage was restricted “to tax-paying, white male citizens.”[2]
The initial goal of limiting participation was driven by an overwhelming recurring fear at the time which was represented in not wanting to lose the republic to democracy, which acknowledged demagoguery as what kills a republic. The Founders feared emotions overcoming logic and rationality. Jonathan Lai tied the question back into representation as he sees it in Pennsylvania and the country at large – stating that the most important factor is ensuring that different groups able to express their policy preferences.
Dr. Dorsey alluded to the contentious gubernatorial election in Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams has argued that Republican candidate Brian Kemp wants to limit people’s access to voting.[3] She also said that people are not properly educated about how democracy should work – pointing to the lower rate of incoming undergraduate students she is encountering that have no high school experience with civics classes.
This led to a question regarding whether paranoia is embedded in the democratic experience in U.S. politics. Dr. Freeman noted that the Founders thought of skepticism and vigilance as inherently necessary and thought of education as important for citizens to recognize a threat to the republic. Dr. Dorsey added that the price of freedom is vigilance. Mr. Lai said that people need to feel like this election matters, to be engaged in the democratic process. In his work, he has encountered many people that are disenchanted with our political system that do not think voting matters.
When the panel was asked about the historical perspective on yesterday’s election, Dr. Dorsey said that despite the limited intent of the Founding Fathers, the ongoing sacrifices of voting rights activists, civil rights activists, women’s suffragists, among others, have pushed us toward a more democratic place. She quoted Michelle Obama recently asking college students: if they would not want their grandparents choosing their clothes or their food or their music, why would they allow them to choose how society is run? Dr. Rosier said that progress is a result of struggle which needs to be documented and related. Dr. Freeman alluded to the teleological temptation of the idea of progress. When one pays attention, one can see that it is a push-and-pull process; a journey of peaks and valleys rather than a steady incline.
One audience member quoted nineteenth-century politician Boss Tweed, the architect of the Tammany Hall political machine, in referencing money in the nomination process, asking how much the vote matters when your choices are limited to the best fundraisers of either party.[4] This led to a discussion of political parties, which would have been inconceivable to the eighteenth century Founding Fathers, especially because they manage to exist on a national scale.
Demographic-influenced voting blocs would hardly have been unfamiliar to their immediate successors, though. In the nineteenth century, free African Americans initially go toward Abolitionists (who were primarily Republicans), but pragmatism ruled through Reconstruction, so when jobs are found voting Democratic, that was how they voted. In the case of Native Americans, instead of being concerned about slavery, their focus was on the maintenance of their own freedom and sovereignty. Over time, from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the Republicans cultivated the reputation of the party of terminating treaty obligations, i.e. the anti-American Indian party.
Dr. Freeman addressed a question about the purpose and use of the Electoral College – it was created to limit democracy. However, the panel refused to make any prescriptions or prognostications for its role in the future.
One student referred to abolition in the nineteenth century and Vietnam in the twentieth century, asking what represents the feel of being upon a precipice today. What is the big mainstream narrative issue of 2018? Dr. Freeman answered that, more than an individual issue, this is a debate over ‘what comes next’ – what people and what ideas will determine the future.
Speaking of the future, another student asked about how new information technologies affected being an informed constituent. He asked specifically about how social media and the proliferation of news leads to a dearth of faith in the legitimacy of information and how that affects democracy. Mr. Lai expressed that people are interested in finding information that they are not being bombarded with – how candidates feel about issues specific to them that do not necessarily make headlines or highlight political ads. They have questions that they cannot find answers to. It was implied that the greatest duty of journalists is to help people become informed citizens.
To that end, Dr. Rosier stressed the role of education in accomplishing the goal of cultivating an informed citizenry. People who do not have the time to spend in archives making sense of history need someone to do it for them, i.e. historians. It is our responsibility to keep engaging the public in ways that they can relate to. Dr. Dorsey said that the conversation is always historically rooted but part of the struggle is to push the country to a more democratic situation through that conversation. People literally died for us to have the opportunity to vote – in the Revolutionary War, in the Civil War, in the social justice and civil rights movements of the 20th and 21st century – and it shows an ignorance of history to be apathetic to that civic duty.
Dr. Dorsey also echoed Mr. Lai’s sentiments regarding the necessity of good journalism – saying, as he did, that subscribing to a newspaper is a good first step. She also state that Black journalists are essential to Black political existence and that their fall has reflected or coalesced with loss of advocacy. Dr. Freeman compared being an informed member of the electorate to being a smart consumer. She also said that, if Democracy is one big conversation, new technology scrambles the conversation and that initial surges in technology always have a moment of not understanding how it works.
The general tone of the Q&A was somewhat hopeful while understanding skepticism. Though they hesitated to give prescriptions, the scholars of the panel did warn against complacency and despondence. One of the biggest takeaways was to be aware of the historical precedent for the swinging of the political pendulum, but also to be aware that there are unique components to every historical moment, including the one we find ourselves in today.
The 2018 “midterm” elections saw twenty-eight seats in the House of Representatives flip from Republican to Democratic control, and two Senate seats flip from Democratic to Republican control. The Florida Senate race fell within the margin for an automatic recount (.05%). Ninety-six women won House seats – thirty-one new representatives joining sixty-five incumbents, breaking the old record of eighty-five seats. Eleven women won Senate seats – two new-elects joining nine incumbents.[5]
There were other historic firsts for diversity and representation across the country. The House of Representatives received its first two Native American women, Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids of the Ho-Chunk Nation and New Mexico Democrat Deb Haaland of the Pueblo of Laguna. Davids, a former lawyer and mixed martial artist who identifies as lesbian, is also the first openly LGBTQ Kansan Congressperson.[6]
Congress is also receiving its first two Muslim women in Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Minessota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member Ilhan Omar. Omar is replacing Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, and is also the first Somali-American to enter Congress. Texas elected to the House of Representatives its first two Hispanic/Latinx women – Veronica Escobar, replacing Beto O’Rourke in the greater El Paso area and Sylvia Garcia of Houston. Both Escobar and Garcia won over 60% of the vote in their respective primaries; Garcia’s was a seven-person race.[7] In America’s northeastern cradle, both Connecticut and Massachusetts elected their first Black women to Congress, in Jahana Hayes and Ayanna Pressley, respectively.[8] In all, over 200 women ran for Congress this year.[9]
Colorado elected its first openly-gay governor in Democratic Congressman Jared Polis. Tennessee elected its first woman Senator, conservative House Representative Marsha Blackburn.[10] Arizona is guaranteed to have its first woman Senator, likely Republican Martha McSally; Democrat Kyrsten Sinema was behind her in a close race, while Green Party candidate Angela Green won two percent of the vote.[11] So, in many ways, this day represented a new chapter in the history of American democracy.
[1]“Did You Know: Women and African Americans Could Vote in NJ before the 15th and 19th Amendments?” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/voting-rights-in-nj-before-the-15th-and-19th.htm
[2] “Did You Know,” National Park Service.
[3] For more on this race, see Greg Bluestein and Mark Niesse, “The right to vote becomes a heated battle in Georgia governor’s race,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 21, 2018, https://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/the-right-vote-becomes-heated-battle-georgia-governor-race/Mga2D1WMOvolspCJYU6YoK/
[4] “I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating,” from “Boss Tweed,” Biography, https://www.biography.com/people/boss-tweed-20967991. From more on this phenomenon, see Lawrence Lessig, “We Should Be Protesting, Too,” Huffington Post, Dec. 01, 2014 (Oct. 01, 2014), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/we-should-be-protesting-too_b_5917486.html, and Nora Engel, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…,” The New York Times, April 10, 1977, https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/10/archives/connecticut-opinion-mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-.html
[5] Meg Wagner, Veronica Rocha, Maegan Vazquez, Brian Ries, “Election Day in the US: The day after,” CNN, Nov. 7, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-day-reaction-2018/index.html
[6] Eli Watkins, “Women and LGBT candidates make history in 2018 midterms,” CNN, Nov. 7, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/historic-firsts-midterms/index.html
[7] Nicole Acevedo, “Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia win, Will be first Texas Latinas in Congress,”NBCNews, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/veronica-escobar-sylvia-garcia-win-will-be-first-texas-latinas-n931471. Jacob Carpenter and Olivia P. Tallet, “Houston’s Sylvia Garcia becomes first Latina to win seat in Congress,” The Houston Chronicle, Nov. 7, 2018, https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-s-Sylvia-Garcia-becomes-first-Texas-13369017.php
[8] Daniela Atlimari and Rebecca Luyre, “Jahana Hayes Wins, Becomes 1st Black Woman From Connecticut In Congress,” Hartford Courant, Nov. 6, 2018, https://www.courant.com/politics/elections/hc-election-connecticut-fifth-district-jahana-hayes-20181102-story.html. Chris Perez, “Massachusetts officially elects its first black woman to Congress,” New York Post, Nov. 7, 2018, https://nypost.com/2018/11/07/massachusetts-officially-elects-its-first-black-woman-to-congress/, William J. Kole, “Ayanna Pressley officially Massachusetts’ 1st black congresswoman,” Boston Globe, Nov. 7, 2018, https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/11/07/ayanna-pressley-officially-massachusetts-black-congresswoman/3RK8xb1hdv7MMoYalZFfMI/story.html.
[9] Acevedo, “First Texas Latinas.”
[10] Watkins, “Women and LGBT candidates make history.”
[11] “Arizona Election Results,” The New York Times, Nov. 7, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-arizona-elections.html
Historically Speaking 