October 6th 2008
The Complexity of Suffrage–Obama and My Vote
One of my greatest heroes from the past is Emma Goldman, whose life story so enthralled me in high school that I collected her every biography and pored through used book stores for tracts she authored. Most of my political philosophy was shaped first by her words, then by other voices from the labor movement of the early 1900s and marxist or leftist writings from the 1950s.
Ms Goldman, feminist and activist that she was, was squarely against the notion of women’s suffrage–so much so that she denotes an entire tract to the subject (published in 1917 in Anarchism and Other Essays). Her argument, in “Woman Suffrage,” is not complex: she essentially targeted the methods used by upper-middle class and rich (white) women to try to gain the right to vote as well as (in her view) the inability of the vote to effect real change for women’s rights. As allied as the suffrage movement was to freedom for blacks, it still was an elite movement, run by women who had time and could afford to. It did not matter to Goldman whether that path to suffrage was necessary (who else was going to fight for it?)–it only mattered that in the process, women turned their backs on other women, that working women were disenfranchised or worse.
In the concluding paragraph of “Woman Suffrage,” she writes
She can give suffrage or the ballot no new quality, nor can she receive anything from it that will enhance her own quality. Her development, her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself. First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by refusing to bear children, unless she wants them; by refusing to be a servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc.; by making her life simpler, but deeper and richer. That is, by trying to learn the meaning and substance of life in all its complexities, by freeing herself from the fear of public opinion and public condemnation. Only that, and not the ballot, will set woman free, will make her a force hitherto unknown in the world, a force for real love, for peace, for harmony; a force of divine fire, of life giving; a creator of free men and women.
Her reasoning seems, to me, quite rational and I struggled for years each election with whether I should vote or not, wondering how, in the broken system Emma described–which is all the more entrenched today, perhaps–any vote could contribute to real change.
I have voted, every time. I vote my conscience, so of late I’ve voted Green mostly; when I was younger I was a Democrat, which didn’t stop me from voting Independent for John Anderson in ’80. But I am disenchanted. What does voting Green mean, after all? Have I wasted those votes? Many argue that Ralph Nader’s presence in recent elections has “stolen” votes from Democrats–but I wonder if his presence isn’t necessary: he speaks of the “tyranny” of the two-party system and I hear Goldman’s words floating in the air. The problems of our country are not Republican, nor Democrat, they seem to me to be systemic. Voting won’t reform the system–or at least, I can say with certainty, it has not reformed the system to date.
And now, a historic election. My colleague at Brave Gnu Whirled linked to the New Yorker endorsement of Barack Obama and it is indeed an extraordinarily well-reasoned, well-written piece. It moved me the way Obama speeches themselves move me. The rhetoric is beautiful and inspired.
But change? Forgive me, but I do not think there will be real change in America. I believe our lives will be improved under the administration Obama envisions–things can hardly get worse (the New Yorker calls George Bush’s Presidency “the worst since Reconstruction”). But the Religious Right is not going to go away, Rush Limbaugh will not disappear, conservatives will still hold seats in Congress… The business of politics is not significantly going to change.
And so, what does suffrage do for us? I want to hope it is more than just a national catharsis. Is it?