By Kathy E. Gill, LWV Snohomish County

Two hundred sixty-two League members logged in July 19 to hear author and historian Heather Cox Richardson discuss her book, How the South Won the Civil War↗️. The Zoom event was organized as part of the League’s 250th commemoration of the Declaration of Independence. 

At one point in the online conversation, Richardson offered this fantasy, inspired by a comic strip, about women winning the right to vote in male-dominated Wyoming: 

“I always think of that scene from Bloom County, where the alien comes down behind the kid who's looking at the stars and unfurls a sign that says: ‘Mars Needs Women.’ I always think of that in terms of Wyoming, because they could have done the same thing. Wyoming needs women. So, Wyoming Territory recognizes the right of women to vote in 1869.”  

League members submitted questions in advance for Richardson.   

Women’s suffrage and the West 
Responding to a question about women’s suffrage taking hold in the West before the 19th Amendment, Richardson described the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a mark, perhaps, of “a different political era” from that of the Civil War.  

In the West, citizens were engaged in a “reworking of the American government to recognize the importance of all the individuals in a community, as opposed to simply the individualistic guys who are collecting a paycheck.”  

The West marked a rise in populism “that is going to become the modern American state in the middle of the 20th century,” she concluded. 

Why did the founders form the Electoral College? 
Richardson punctured a myth about the Electoral College being designed as a vehicle to enable slavery.  

“What the founders really worried about, and why they come up with the Electoral College, is they're really, really worried about somebody figuring out a way to manipulate the vote to remain in power as a dictator.” 

It was not until Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made cotton so profitable that Southern enslavers turned to the idea of the Electoral College to protect their institutions, she continued. 

How can we strengthen the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments? 
In response to a question about strengthening the Constitution, Richardson suggested the first step is to “get rid of Citizens United.”  

The second? “End partisan gerrymandering.” 

Richardson continued, “The Department of Justice was literally created by Congress in 1870 to make sure the 14th Amendment was honored by the states. We don't actually have to change that amendment to make it honored. We need the Department of Justice to do its freaking job!”    

In fact, rather than amending the Constitution to enforce the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, Richardson urged ensuring the Department of Justice will do its job. And that means the Senate must do the same, she added. 

Remember, we have agency 
Inspiring hope, Richardson reminded the audience that “the Constitution starts with we, the people, and we give our power temporarily to our elected representatives to act for us.”  

She added, “If we don't support what they're doing, we can take that power back.” 

The idea of having “agency in changing the future … is crucial for us to understand in this moment.”  

When people experience joy, community and other positive emotions, she said, “fear and anger of authoritarianism can't take hold.” 

Turning to recent polls, Richardson added, “Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of stopping the rise of authoritarianism.”  

Richardson pointed to the League’s efforts as ways to express that agency. 

In addition to encouraging people to vote, she said, “Make sure people have access to fact-based media, and you can spread fact-based media, and you can push back instantly when you see lies on social media.”   

Richardson added, “But you can also paint, and sing, and … contribute to a world that says, we don't have to live with the guardrails we had in the past. We can create something entirely new.” 

Richardson donated a signed first edition of her book, which was given to Kat Odell of Pullman, whose name was selected at random. 

A video recording of the event is available↗️.  

Editor’s note: Kathy E. Gill organized the event for the League.