Note: Today, Friday, October 18, 2024 is an ‘especially significant day’ as my oldest (by 5 years) girl cousin says. I confess I’m a bit cranky this year as it’s the year I tilt over from the nines into a new decade of numbers…But I’ll get over that, I always do! HA!
In the spirit of celebrating birthdays, I thought I’d recount my ‘especially significant (birth)day’ of Wednesday, October 18, 1972.
The 26th Amendment, Pat Schroeder, Shirley Chisholm, George McGovern, Richard Nixon and me.
On March 23, 1971 the 26th Amendment was proposed – due in large part to the efforts and voices of us, the ‘younger’ generation. Bringing to the forefront the fact that those drafted during the Vietnam War – young men between the ages of 18 & 21 – were required to fight and possibly die for their nation in wartime at the age of 18. Yet, these same citizens had no legal say in the government’s decision to wage war until the age of 21.
Youthful chants of “Old enough to fight, Old enough to vote” were echoed by people of all ages – hawks and doves.
By July 1, 1971, the 26th Amendment was ratified and noted as being the quickest adoption of any amendment to date.
October 18, 1972, I turned 18. As a freshman at the University of Colorado, the energy surrounding that year’s Presidential election increased my sense of ‘making a difference’ by exercising the most basic right in a Democracy – simply by casting my vote.
Oh, but would I actually get to vote?
You bettcha! My birthday was within a few short weeks of the birth-date cutoff and voter registration deadline. As a newly turned 18 year old, I registered the day after my birthday as an Independent.
Back then it simply meant “not Democratic, not Republican”. These days, it’s come to mean something much more complicated.
However. I still stand by my decision as a registered Independent voter as being 100% unaffiliated with any political party. Every single Presidential Election except the 2012 one, due to circumstances beyond my control, I cast my vote – for or against or instead of (third party options) – someone – for President.
But that’s not what this post is about…Instead, let’s review the election selection during that first inaugural year of voting for 18 year olds.
1972’s ballot was rich with change and choice as is wont in a Democracy. Besides the highly charged George McGovern and Richard M. Nixon campaigns, two unknowns were gaining national recognition while running for their own chosen political offices.
Two dynamic & highly qualified women peppered the campaign trail. Shirley Chisholm in the Presidential race and Pat Schroeder in the US Congressional race from the 1st congressional district which spanned the Denver Metro area.
Being a resident of Boulder County, anything to do with Denver wasn’t really on my radar. As a newbie voter at the time, I didn’t fully understand how local and national candidates represented all or parts of my state of Colorado. As it happens, Pat Schroeder would be a presence to reckon with time and again on the local and national political scene.
I now realize what a landmark impact she made on the political landscape even if we youngster-voters would joke about “Pat and her uterus”. 🙂
As for Shirley Chisholm – what a powerhouse!
Yes, if she had been on the ballot, I would have cast my first ever vote for her. 🙂
Extra notes on Schroeder & Chisholm
Schroeder, at her husband’s encouragement, entered the 1972 race for the predominantly Democratic but conservative congressional district encompassing most of Colorado’s capital city of Denver. Running without the support of the state Democratic Party or the Democratic National Committee, Schroeder campaigned as an anti–Vietnam War candidate. When asked to explain the motivation behind her unlikely congressional bid, Schroeder replied, “Among other things the need for honesty in government.” She added, “It’s an issue that women can speak best to—and more should be given the chance.”4 Schroeder ran a grass–roots campaign that seemed as overmatched as those of her political idol, Adlai Stevenson; she believed she would “talk sense to the American people and lose.”5 Voters, however, embraced her antiwar, women’s rights message. She beat out her Democratic primary opponent Clarence Decker by 4,000 votes and, in the general election, defeated first–term incumbent Republican Mike McKevitt with 52 percent of the vote. Schroeder was the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado, a state that had granted women the vote in 1893.6 In her subsequent 11 elections, she rarely faced serious opposition, typically garnering more than 60 percent of the vote.7
(Click here for entire article)
5John Brinkley, “A Brave Woman Leaves Her Mark; Pat Schroeder Exits Congress,” 31 December 1996, Cleveland Plain–Dealer: 1E.
6Marcy Kaptur, Women in Congress: A Twentieth–Century Odyssey (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1996): 174; see also, Current Biography, 1978: 368.
7“Election Statistics, 1920 to Present,” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/election.aspx; Politics in America, 1996 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1995): 221.
In announcing her bid for the Democratic nomination in 1972, Chisholm said, “I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people, and my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.”
Although she ran a spirited campaign, Chisholm was unable to consolidate the support of influential Black leaders, giving way for South Dakota Senator George McGovern to claim the Democratic nomination.
(Click here for entire article)
Chisholm arrived at the Democratic convention with 152 delegates. This was more than those of senator Hubert Humphrey and Edward Muskie, who’d been two of the main challengers on the campaign trail (Humphrey was the Democratic candidate in 1968). Yet she was still in fourth place behind Senator George McGovern, Senator Henry Jackson, and the injured Wallace. McGovern was the clear winner with 1,729 delegates, and his lead gave him no incentive to negotiate with Chisholm for her 152.
(Click here for entire article)
