Repeal the 19th Amendment
In light of Donald Trump"s supporters" calling for a repeal of the 19th Amendment the one passed in 1920 that granted women the right to vote let"s take a look at all the countries around the world where women are barred from voting.
No. 1: Vatican City.
No. 2: There is no No. 2.
There is one country on this entire planet that doesn"t allow women to vote, and a bunch of its men can"t vote either. The only elections held in Vatican City are for new popes, and voting is limited to cardinals.
Saudi Arabia held out until 2011, when King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run for office in future elections. In 2015, they exercised that right and elected 21 female candidates into office.
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Still, just moments after FiveThirtyEight"s Nate Silver released a map that projected a Trump landslide if only men voted and a Clinton landslide if only women voted #repealthe19th was trending on Twitter.
A push, in other words, for the United States to become less progressive than Saudi Arabia a country ranked close to last in the World Economic Forum"s Gender Gap Index. (It came in 134th out of 145 countries ranked.)
It"s a little funny, mostly because it reminds me of the way my kids played "Go Fish" when they were, like, 5. As long as they were winning, the rules made perfect sense. As soon as they started to lose, the rules were stupid and unfair and should definitely, for sure, be changed.
It"s not as cute from grown-ups, but it"s also not that surprising.
The 19th Amendment isn"t the only one taking a beating this election. Trump and his supporters have called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, which doesn"t square with the First Amendment"s protection against any law impeding the free exercise of religion.
The First Amendment also protects freedom of the press, which doesn"t line up so well with Trump"s numerous calls for tighter restrictions and "veto power" over the media.
Our Constitution frowns on jailing your political opponents too, something Trump promised to do if he"s elected.
Then again, he never pretended to be a constitutional scholar.
He has vowed repeatedly, however, to Make America Great Again, and rolling our legal protections back to the 19th century seems an odd place to start.
Particularly when the rest of the world continues to march forward.
hstevens@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @heidisteven13
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Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-repeal-the-19th-amendment-balancing-1013-20161013-column.html
