In the most divisive and unconventional election season we’ve ever seen, the news headlines seem to only be getting worse. Every time a new piece of information comes out, or something old is dug up, it’s always somehow even more offensive and shocking than everything that came before it. Trump’s extremely controversial, sexist, and disgraceful remarks from the Billy Bush video that came out just before the second debate are best addressed by the ever eloquent Michelle Obama’s campaign speech in New Hampshire (watch 4:40-10:15 specifically, but IMO so honestly the whole thing is amazing).
After this lowest of lows, you’d think that there’s nothing else that could shock you about this election. And then it happened. It was discovered that if just men were voting in the election, then Trump would win by a landslide, prompting Trump supporters to tweet about #RepealThe19th. If you need a quick refresher, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America finally gave women the right to vote in 1920 after a long and hard battle for women’s suffrage. Still today, women’s rights are a huge issue that we deal with in big ways and in day to day life.
So that’s right, some Trump supporters would really want to repeal the right of women – who make up half the country and are equally qualified and intelligent voters – to vote in this chaotic election. I don’t care how small the movement was or how few people originally tweeted out about it, but the fact of the matter is that this is the mental state of our nation. The backlash this hashtag has received has been swift and fierce, but while it fights this current notion, it doesn’t do anything to fix the systemic issue that allowed this to happen in the first place.
As Michelle Obama said towards the end of her speech, “How can we continue to be moral leaders,” in the world? This was before she stressed the sheer importance of voting in this election, after “recovering from our shock and depression,” because whatever happens in the upcoming month, either Hillary Clinton or her opponent will be elected and inaugurated as president. Stopping Trump from being elected will not fix the problem, but it will block a major artery that is feeding the disease of ignorance, rape culture, and hate.
