Switzerland didn’t adopt female suffrage until 1972. The ignorant sometimes chalk this up to institutional sexism.
It’s untrue, at least directly. The Swiss’ belief was that voting was a right – for those who defended Switzerland. All Swiss men, at the time, served in the Swiss military; such service was a pre-condition of the franchise, on the theory that only those who were committed to defending Switzerland had a complete voice in running the country.
And women just didn’t serve in the military, back then.
Now, I’m not advocating this for the US. No, not at all.
But I do think that “being aware of the world and the issues” is an appropriate level of commitment to justify participation in our democratic process.
And so – if you can’t be bothered to learn the issues beyond the simple buzz-phrases or memorizing names, then please stay home and don’t pollute the electoral process with your ignorance.
This is not a partisan statement, by the way. It applies to all sides of the aisle…
…although I think it’s fairly clear which party’s gone long on “unthinking, ignorant fealty”.