#repealthe19th

Have you seen it? A recent Snopes article made a slight downplay of the trending hashtag, with a claim that most of the hashtag’s use was to defame and denounce the hashtag itself. Yet, anyone with a Twitter account can and is encouraged to go into their Twitter search and look for the hashtag.

What you’ll find is that Snopes isn’t entirely wrong. It makes a good and perfectly truthful point that many people are using the hashtag to denounce the concept of it. Yet, there are many who are actually making calls for the repeal of the 19th Amendment, which grants women the right to vote. There are even tweets from women supporting the repeal of the 19th Amendment if it means that their candidate wins. It is truly a dark time in America when citizens are willing to waive their right to vote in order to get a candidate into power.

As Americans, we live in an era marked by intense polarization, multiple instances of police brutality, and presidential candidates who many view as pure evil. Particularly, we have a Republican candidate who has gained notoriety for having insane policy stances, being a total liar, and using reality television tactics to gain support. This particular candidate, who shall be unnamed to avoid further boosting his notoriety, is an absolute detriment to the American political system, and panders to the paranoid schizophrenics within the United States.

To even seriously consider eliminating the rights of an entire group of individuals – in this case, all women – for the sake political goals, is fascist, and goes against our core values as Americans. It is an attempt to stifle democracy and the progress that the U.S. has made since the beginning of the 20th century. This issue goes beyond partisan politics, and shows that there are those within America who are living and voting in ignorance.

Yet, the right to vote ignorantly is a facet of American democracy too. The right to make mistakes is democratic, even if they are a detriment to the country. Certainly the support to repeal the 19th Amendment will undoubtedly fail under the overwhelming amount of support for it.

Still, it is troublesome that there are those in America who have such large feelings of malice towards their fellow countrywomen and countrymen. Hate is the core of this fringe-right movement, and it can be characterized by unreasonable paranoia, fear, racism, sexism, and hate; the core facets of white supremacy.

The issue at hand is a cultural issue that the U.S. must face. Each citizen must take the responsibility to have civil discussions with their peers about the issues at hand.

The cause of the problem is the American education system, which must be reformed, with an emphasis on critical analysis. Too often do states play politics with entire generations of young minds, and too often does this lead to generations of individuals soaked in adverse political socialization.

Fundamentally speaking, the education system must make an effort to expand its curriculum to teach students how to critically think in the 21st century. Too often do schools in various parts of the country teach their students what to think, rather than teach their students how to think. Each individual should be given the opportunity to obtain the power to think well; to reach conclusions of their own accord using critical, rational analysis and reason.

Hate is eliminated by love. Ignorance is counteracted by knowledge. Oppression, even in a democracy, is destroyed by activism and participation. This is but a glimpse of the evolution of the U.S., and the country has prospered under these values.  Should citizens of the U.S. remember what these values are and what it truly means to be an American, then #repealthe19th would never have even been conceived.