To Placate Youth Rebellion the 26th Amendment Promised Old Enough to Fight—Old Enough to Vote

 

The struggle to win youth voting rights was rooted in Vietnam War protests.

Note--Eliminating the youth vote is bubbling on the back burner of the regime's voter suppression efforts alongside revoking Women's Suffrage--tasks requiring a daunting Connotational challenges but are stated aims of the most extreme Christian Nationalist wing of the MAGA movement.  Which is to say not far at all from Primus himself.

On July 5, 1971, the 26th Amendment which guaranteed 18- to 21-year-old citizens the right to vote in all elections was officially added to the U.S. Constitution.  A Joint Congressional Resolution proposing the amendment had cleared both houses by March 23.  On July 1 North Carolina became the 38th state to ratify the amendment—the necessary three quarters of the states.  No other Constitutional amendment has come close to the speed at which the 26th Amendment was ratified—just 69 days.  On July 5 President Richard Nixon signed official certification of the amendment.

The idea of reducing the voting age had been kicked around since West Virginia Democratic Senator Harley Kilgore proposed it 1941 with the vocal support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt while the Draft was beefing up the Army on the eve of America’s entry into World War II.  After the war began, the proposal was lost in the shuffle.  The Cold War and the very hot war in Korea revived interest, but most states signaled their opposition.  In his 1954 State of the Union address Dwight D. Eisenhower, became the first president to publicly support prohibiting age-based denials of suffrage for those 18 and older.  By 1955 just two states—Georgia and Kentucky had taken action to lower the voting age, mostly due to internal political issues.

Students march for the vote circa 1968.

But the Vietnam war, for which reluctant youth were being drafted in large numbers as cannon fodder because the government feared the political consequences of wide-spread mobilization of the National Guard and the Reserves, brought the issue to a head once more.  Promoted by a wave of student and anti-war activism demonstrations “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote” became a powerful slogan.  The student uprisings, urban rioting, and the violent confrontations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention caused many political leaders of both parties to seek some way of mollifying the street rage.

In 1970, Senator Ted Kennedy proposed amending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to lower the voting age nationally.  On June 22, 1970, President but expressed his reservations in his signing statement. 

Despite my misgivings about the constitutionality of this one provision, I have signed the bill. I have directed the Attorney General to cooperate fully in expediting a swift court test of the constitutionality of the 18-year-old provision.

Oregon and Texas challenged the law in court, and the case came before the Supreme Court in 1970 as Oregon v. Mitchell.  The Court struck down the provisions that established 18 as the voting age in state and local elections while upholding the extension of voting rights in Federal elections.  The decision resulted in states being able to maintain 21 as the voting age in state and local elections but being required to establish separate voter rolls so that voters between 18 and 20 years old could vote in federal elections—a bureaucratic nightmare that threatened to cause chaos in the up-coming 1972 elections.

Indiana Senator Birch Bayh rushed a proposed Constitutional amendment through his sub-committee an on to adoption by the Senate

Indiana Democratic Senator Birch Bayh, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments had been holding hearings on an amendment to lower the voting age since 1968. After Oregon v. Mitchell, Bayh surveyed election officials in 47 states and found that registering an estimated 10 million young people in a separate system for federal elections would cost approximately $20 million and concluded that most states could not change their state constitutions in time for the 1972 election, mandating national action to avoid “chaos and confusion” at the polls.  On March 2, 1971, Bayh's subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee approved the proposed constitutional amendment. 

                                   

                                                 The official Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the 26th Amendment to the states for ratification.

On March 10, 1971, the Senate voted 94–0 in favor of proposing the amendment and the House followed on March 23 by a vote of 401–19 in favor.

The proposed amendment read:

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

On the very day the amendment was submitted by Congress Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington ratified it followed by Hawaii and Massachusetts the next day.  After that it was a scramble by the states to get on board, although some did so reluctantly feeling that they were being fiscally blackmailed into taking action.  Four additional states ratified it later in 1971 and South Dakota finally passed it in 2014. Seven states—Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Utah—have still not taken any action on the amendment.

Richard Nixon signed the Amendment as a witness surrounded by Congressional pages.

After signing as a witness to the certification of the amendment by the Administrator of General Services Robert Kunzig President Nixon said:

As I meet with this group today, I sense that we can have confidence that America’s new voters, America’s young generation, will provide what America needs as we approach our 200th birthday, not just strength and not just wealth but the “Spirit of ‘76” a spirit of moral courage, a spirit of high idealism in which we believe in the American dream, but in which we realize that the American dream can never be fulfilled until every American has an equal chance to fulfill it in their own life.

But in fact, Nixon feared that young voters would reject his re-election.  Democrats we hopeful that they would.  Neither was correct.  Many of the youth activists were disillusioned by electoral politics after the assassination of Robert Kennedy and the ’68 Democratic Convention debacle.  They failed for the most part to rally to Senator George McGovern’s candidacy the way many had for Kennedy or had “come clean for Gene” McCarthy.  McGovern accepted the nomination of a badly fractured and demoralized party and was star-crossed by disaster after disaster.  Nixon romped to reelection in an Electoral College landslide carrying all states but Massachusetts and claiming 60.7% of the popular vote.

In subsequent elections voters 21 and under consistently registered and voted in far lower numbers than older voters.  And polling showed that when they did vote, they were far from radical.  Most consistently reflected the political parties and choices of their parents.

The youth vote did occasionally affect local elections, especially in college towns like Madison, Wisconsin where they helped former student activist and avowed Socialist Paul R. Soglin get elected and re-elected as Mayor.  They also influenced hyper-local contests, especially in favor of school referendums.

A screen save from MTV's first Rock the Vote campaign in 1990.

Many attempts at mobilizing youth voting have been made, most significantly MTV’s Rock the Vote Campaign that began in 1990.  But young voters did not have a significant influence until Barack Obama for whom they turned out strongly in 2008 and 2012.  But they largely failed to show up for Congressional off-year elections contributing Democrats losing the House of Representatives.

Bernie Sanders’ 2016 primary campaign did mobilize many youths.  The failure of significant numbers of them to support Hillary Clinton in November has been blamed for her narrow loss to Donald Trump but in the end, it was probably not the decisive cause of her defeat.  In 2020 beyond a hard core of support, Sanders did not do so well among younger voters, many of whom spread their support among his rivals especially Elizabeth Warren.  They initially showed little enthusiasm for Joe Biden.  But he got enough of their votes to push him to victory in key states because young voters especially regarded another four years as an existential threat.  

Youth leaders of the March for Our Lives extended their activism to Vote for Our Lives.

The survivors of the 2018 Margery Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida organized the March for Our Lives movement and subsequent drive for youth voter registration.  Many climate change activists and women’s groups have also backed action as did many Black Lives Matter marchers in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd and others.  Voter registration drives ramped up across the nation and many hoped that the wide-spread adoption of vote-by-mail during the Coronavirus pandemic would also increase the youth vote.

That’s what Trump and his Republican enablers feared, which is why they poured millions of dollars into backing wide-spread voter suppression ever since.

Bonus Semisesquicentennial Murfin Musings on the 4th

 

This is the official logo the U.S. Semisesquicentennial--that's 250 years.  Inspiring, isn't it.  It looks like it could be knocked out by any adverting art department between morning coffee break and martini lunch.  Even quicker with ubiquitous A.I.  There is nothing inspiring about it.  No human or historical context.  It is branding pure and simple.  A symbol of the triumph of corporatism.

It has become a regular trope of commentators across media and social platforms to contrast the dismal spectacle that Donald Trump's vanity has produced to the year-long patriotic celebration of the Bicentennial in 1976.  I am old enough to remember...

There was a lot of this sort of thing everywhere you looked.  Revolution! Independence!  Heroism!  Federal eagles were hot decor.  Flags were everywhere.  People literally wore their patriotism on their sleeves.  All of this coming on the not-yet-heeled scars of the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement, the Watergate Scandal, and simmering racial divides. But folks celebrated--most of 'em any way--even with mental asterixis of reservations.

I was 27-years-old and hitchhiking back to Chicago after an old-style West Coast soapbox speaking tour for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).  I was also just four years passed a stint in Sandstone Federal Prison for Draft resistance, and suitably shaggy and disheveled.  Yeah, I was one of those kinds of guys.

This may have been the motel I stayed in.

As the gloaming descended on July 3, I was dropped off by an I-90 exit outside of Rochester, Minnesota.  There was a 1950's style motel with older model cars parked.  I calculated the jingle in my jeans and figured I could afford a night instead of unrolling my bindle in some discrete spot.  A couple of nights of that already left my youthful body achy and sore.  The clerk was only mildly dubious about the dusty hippy with only an old gas mask bag for luggage without a car, but let me sign the register for 6 or 7 dollars, and handed me the key on big plastic fob.  The room was small and musty and the bed took up 80% of the floor space.  The bathroom was tiny with just a shower stall.  A black-and-white TV with rabbit ears sat on a small, battered dresser.  I dropped a dime in the Coke machine outside and dined on Slim Jims and chips watching flickering coverage of Bicentennial events until I dozed off still in my clothes on top of the blanket.

I jerked away early the next morning.  The Today Show was already covering the Fourth of July hoopla from coast-to-coast, especially the parade of Tall Ships sailing to enter the Port of New York, marching bands and military units assembling for parades, and reporter stand-ups in front of the Capitol, Washington Monument, and Independence Hall in Philadelphia.  I watched and my childhood patriotism came back strong pushing against both anarchism and cynicism.

At dawn it was overcast, humid, and misty.  Hot weather and rolling thunderstorms were forecasted for later that day.  The talking heads on TV were worried about fireworks shows.

I grabbed a local newspaper from a box by the office door.  It splurged for color on the front page and a special Bicentennial insert and headed over to the franchise dinner across the road next to a gas station.  You may remember the kind of place--long counter with stools and worn Formica-topped tables and booths with little juke boxes.  I picked the counter and ordered black coffee, sunny-side-up eggs, crisp bacon, and whole wheat toast.  Crisply fried hashbrowns were thrown in.  I settled in, perusing my newspaper and watch the color TV at the end of the counter.  I took advantage of bottomless cups of coffee and lingered as long as I could until the annoyed staff started whispering.  Time to move on before they called the cops.  I left a good tip--a whole Dollar as I recall, to atone.

                                                    A vintage AmTrack Empire Builder travel poster.

Back in the motel office, I found a brochure for the Empire Builder the legendary Great Northern/Burlington special now being operated by AmTrack.  I still had enough money to ride back to Chicago on the plush and be there in a few hours.  I hung around the room until check-out time, then lackadaisically killed time until I could get to the depot in Rochester.  I would be home in hours and not be drenched in some deluge, I saw floats pass by on the way to a parade and vehicles decorated with flags and bunting.  There was an air of anticipation and excitement.

 

As the Scotsman said, the "best laid plans o' mice and men aft go aglay."  AmTrack let service deteriorate badly from the train's Great Northern glory days. The passenger "express" was sided for every freight, miles and miles of track were in such poor condition that we were slowed to a 10-mile-per-hour reduced speed orders.  We rolled into Wisconsin through late afternoon and evening thunderboomers.  It cleared up enough to witness distant flashes of fireworks from the observation car.  By then the engineer and crew maxed out of allowable work hours, and we had to wait for a new crew to be called in to finish the run.

We finally rolled into the Loop 17 hours behind schedule.  By then I was so flat busted from buying drinks and food in the club car that I had to panhandle in front of the station for CTA fare home.  I finally got to the fourth-floor walk-up on Webster Street we called Wobbly Towers across from Oscar Meyer School that I shared with Kathleen Taylor in the middle of the night.  Itinerant Wobbly bard Mark Ross was also staying there, crashing on the floor of a spare room.

The next morning, I got up to walk the five blocks to the IWW's storefront General Headquarters.  I plopped down to the old Underwood standard typewriter on Big Bill Haywood's big partner desk and pounded out an account of my speaking tour for the Industrial Worker.  I didn't mention my Bicentennial respite.  The Fellow Workers would not have understood.

The Fourth of July Had Competition to be Independence Day

 

A scene that never happened--the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  There was no great signing ceremony on July 4th or any other day.  On August 2, 1776 the Delegates to the Continental Congress who were still in Philadelphia stopped by the Pennsylvania State House to add their signatures before they left town.  Those who were already gone added their signatures when they could--weeks, months, and in one case years later.

Note--Officially, the United States is celebrating it 250th birthday today.  Due to distractions, divergence, and disappointment the celebration is much more muted than the national hoopla fifty years ago for the Bicentennial.  But gloomy or not the commemoration might not be on the right date. 

As we all know today is Independence Day when Americans celebrate the adoption of a resolution by the Continental Congress formally severing ties between the England and her former colonies in 1776. Although we celebrate on July 4th, the date is just one of several that could have been chosen. 

On May 15 Congress adopted a preamble for a resolution offered by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia calling for colonies without a “government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs” to adopt new governments.  The preamble, written by John Adams, said that “it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed.”  Although the four Middle Colonies voted against it, Adams wrote home that he considered this a virtual declaration of independence.  The same day the Virginia Convention adopted a resolution calling for a dissolving all allegiance to the Crown.  

Virtually forgotten in popular accounts, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee offered the underlying resolution for Independence.  The familiar document was an explanation and justification of the act drafted by a special committee.  It was not the legal document accomplishing separation.  Lee's resolution and the votes for and against it were recorded in the official proceedings of Congress.

In keeping with his instructions on June 11 Lee offered a resolution that Congress declare independence, seek foreign alliances, and begin laying the groundwork for a new confederation:

Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

As Lee’s resolution was being debated, Congress authorized a Committee of Five to draw up a document explaining the action, should it be passed.  The committee consisted of Adams; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, the delegate with the most international renown and prestige; Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, one of the youngest delegates; Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut.  

The famous committee charged with drafting a justification for Independence. Left to right:  Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and John Adams.  Jefferson wrote the first draft.  Franklin and Adams were actively involved in editing and fine tuning the document.  Sherman and Livingston are not known to have contributed to the wordage but were important politically to secure support from their states--especially Livingston whose New York delegation was deadlocked on Independence.

The committee delegated to Jefferson the job of writing a first draft.  He did so over several days.  The committee conferred and recommended some changes, which mortified Jefferson, and then he produced a draft incorporating the edits.  It remained, however, mostly Jefferson’s work. 

The language was sent to Congress on June 28.  The document was tabled until action on Lee’s resolution was completed. On July 1, sitting as a Committee of the Whole with each Colony having one vote, the resolution was approved with 9 yeas, two nays (Pennsylvania and South Carolina), and a no vote by New York, whose delegation lacked instructions, and Delaware whose two delegates were split.  

                    Ceasar Rodney rode hell-for-leather from Delaware to cast his deciding vote in that colony's delegation on June 2 passing Lee's resolution.

On July 2 South Carolina reconsidered and switched its vote to yes and the two most ardent opponents of independence in the Pennsylvania delegation, John Dickinson and Robert Morris, bowing to the inevitable, abstained in a caucus of the state’s delegates allowing the delegation to follow Franklin for independence.  Then, dramatically, Caesar Rodney arrived after an epic ride from Delaware to cast a vote breaking the tie in that delegation.  Only New York, then, had not voted for independence.  Adams regarded the July 2 vote as definitively the day of independence.  He wrote home to his wife Abigail:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Congress then took up the wording declaration from the Committee of Five. On July 3 after spirited debate Congress adopted most of Jefferson’s text except for a lengthy passage critical of the slave trade and some other relatively minor matters of language.  He was bitterly disappointed, but the deed was done.  Congress ordered official copies be made for each state and printed copies to be read publicly. These copies were dated July 4.  A calligrapher worked on a very fine original document which most delegates signed on August 2 and to which absent delegates appended their signatures weeks, maybe even months later.  There was no grand signing ceremony as enshrined in myth.  

The iconic document on display at the Library of Congress and reproduced in class rooms across the country is one of about three copies made by a calligrapher.  Like the printed copies it was dated July 4 although there was no action by Congress that day.  The Fourth was meant to be the date that the Declaration was to be read publicly for the first time but the broadsides were not ready from the printer.  The Philadelphia Evening Post ran it on July 6 and it was not until July 8 that Col. John Nixon of the Philadelphia Committee of Safety read it on the steps of the State House.   General George Washington personally read the document to his troops and local citizens in New York City on July 9.

Here are some dates in the associated with marking Independence Day and the Fourth of July:

1776—Philadelphia celebrated with toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, fireworks, and parades after the official reading on July 8.

1777—13 guns were fired once in the morning and once in the evening in Bristol, Rhode Island

1778—George Washington marked the occasion with double rum ration for the troops. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams held a dinner for fellow Americans in Paris.

1779—The Fourth fell on a Sunday. To keep the Sabbath, observances in many places were held July 5.

1781—Massachusetts became the first state legislature to recognize the day as an official occasion.

1791—The first recorded use of the name Independence Day occurred.

1826—Former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died within an hour of each other on the 50th anniversary of the dated copies of the Declaration

1831—Former President James Monroe died on the Fourth.

1870—Congress made the 4th of July an unpaid holiday for Federal employees.

1884—The Statue of Liberty was presented to the American People in Paris.

1941—Congress made Independence Day a paid Federal holiday.

 

Walking the Walk and Compassion for Campers Update for July 3 2026

 

Look for new opportunities for action, education, community, and solidarity in and around McHenry County here every week.  

                                                            Walking the Walk 

 

Thanks to everyone who came out to participate in and support events over a very busy couple of weeks.  The Resistance is strong in McHenry County.  With Independence Day and the nation's 250th birthday, there is a hiatus on protests--unless some outrage or emergency requires rapid response.  Check out the many 4th of July community events and connect with your neighbors.

This activist round-up purposefully does not endorse candidates or parties or list their events, we concentrate on direct action and witness.  But everyone agrees that voting in support of your beliefs and priorities is essential.  With a critical General Election coming up, this is a great time to connect to candidates, campaigns, and organizations that support you.  Volunteers are needed for door-to-door canvasing, telephoning, public events, and other jobs.  Links can be found on various Indivisible social media platforms, from activist groups like NOW, Progressive political sites, and from national, state, and local political parties.  There are critical races at every level.

Or you can work on voter turnout and issue voter education with UU The Vote.  Check out special training sessions, events, and actions here. 

McHenry County Disability Pride event will be held this year at McHenry County College, Building B on Saturday, July 25 from 10 am to 1 pm.  The free event aims to highlight the diversity and lived experiences within the community of people living with a wide array of disabilities, from physical and sensory to developmental and behavioral. Officially established in 2015, July is considered National Disability Pride Month.  Activities, service providers, community support and vendors.

Together We Stand McHenry County is sponsoring a Community Blood Drive on Saturday, July 26 at the Algonquin Township Building, 3702 US Rt. 14 between Crystal Lake and Cary.

Compassion for Campers

Many thanks to Ken West, Material Things and Market and all of the sponsors, volunteers, and participants for the Ride/Walk/Run to Leave a Light On. Compassion for Campers received $2536.00 from the event, enough to repay long standing purchases made on the personal accounts of volunteers to keep our services afloat. That leaves us $1139.50 in our account for our upcoming distributions.  We have also been given a $100 monthly sustaining pledge from an individual and look forward to support from our partners and the McHenry County Jewish Congregation and the Ridgefield/Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church.  

Our distributions are usually held on the first and third Fridays of the month from 10 am to 2 pm at the new McHenry County Resource Center (MCHC) at the McHenry County Mental Health Board offices, 620 Dakota Street in Crystal Lake.   Due to the Independence Day holiday weekend, the Resource Center will be closed on Friday, July 3.  Our next distributions will be on Fridays July 17 and August 3.  

With at least a temporary home base, C4C can resume accepting donations of supplies including clean used sleeping bags and tents in their bags or cases, tarps and other basic camping gear, rain gear, and especially mosquito and tick repellents and sunscreen.  Contact Sue Rekenthaler at tomatos@mc.net or Patrick Murfin at pmurfin@sbcglobal.net for more information.

Financial support is critical to fulfilling our mission. The best thing you can do is offer your critically needed financial support. Money donations are always welcome at     https://tinyurl.com/3bz96axe.   Look for updates here.  Email compassionforcampers@treeoflifeuu.org .