In a Constitution Day speech on Sept. 16, President Biden called on Americans to “recommit to fulfilling the sacred tasks of our time — to ensure democracy prevails and to preserve our constitutional protections for generations to come.” With a highly divisive presidential election in less than two months, this year’s Constitution Day feels especially significant. As Biden said, “America is at an inflection point, one of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine the fate of our Nation.”
On Sept. 25, in order to satisfy government requirements, political science professor Daniel Lipson invited Ari Berman, author and national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, to give a talk on his book “Minority Rule and the Fight for Voting Rights and American Democracy.”
Berman began by discussing voter turnout in America. Constitution Day was also National Voter Registration Day. He pointed out that it is interesting that American leaders have to encourage citizens to register to vote, because “in a lot of other countries, registration is automatic. When you turn of voting age, you’re automatically enrolled to vote.”
2020 had the highest United States voter turnout in 120 years, but even then, “a quarter of the entire electorate” were not registered, said Berman. According to the author, voting inequality in this country is the result of institutional issues dating back to the founding fathers. The framers of the Constitution did not trust the American public to make decisions, so they designed it to prevent those who were not white property owners from voting. For the first 125 years of the country, senators were not elected by the public and were instead chosen by state legislatures. The design of the electoral college system, in which voters vote for electors rather than directly for president, reveals the founding fathers’ skepticism of the American people.
“The whole idea that the people couldn’t be trusted with democracy … is still with us today,” Berman said. He detailed how in recent years, officials have cut back on early voting, shut down polling locations and required IDs at polling sites in an effort to disenfranchise voters. In Texas, gun permits are acceptable proof of identification at polling locations, but student IDs are not. In North Carolina, a law was passed in 2018 to limit voter registration on Sundays, when many Black churches held voter registration drives. None of the problems in this country will be solved without a successful democracy, but the democratic system in our country is in crisis. Constitution Day brings about conflicting feelings when considering these challenges, but this recent event has had an interesting history. It shares some strong connections to another celebration held on the same day: Citizenship Day.
Constitution Day’s origins can be traced back to an event called “I Am An American Day,” which Polish immigrant Bronislava du Brissac organized in 1938 to celebrate her pride in achieving the American Dream. Two years later, after people around the country held similar events, President Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized the third Sunday in May as “I Am An American Day.” Roosevelt declared this holiday out of more than just patriotism. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology history professor Christopher Capozzola the holiday was strategically placed in May to draw attention away from May Day, an important day to Communist labor organizers. Roosevelt also intended “I Am An American Day” to emphasize America’s welcoming attitude towards immigrants, though this was directed towards white immigrants rather than immigrants of other ethnicities.
In 1952, Harry Truman renamed “I Am An American Day” to Citizenship Day. The name change is due to the Cold War, when the government was less focused on immigration and instead wanted citizens to take pride in their democracy. Truman also moved Citizenship Day to Sept. 17, the day the founding fathers signed the Constitution. In his proclamation speech, Truman linked Citizenship Day with the day the Constitution was signed, saying that on that day, a citizen should “give special thought and consideration to his rights and responsibilities under our Constitution.” In 1956, Congress established Constitution Week, during which they hoped citizens would educate themselves about the Constitution. In 1997, medical technologist Louise Leigh campaigned for Constitution Day to become its own holiday to promote students’ Constitutional knowledge.
Former West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd founded the holiday as it is celebrated today in 2004. Byrd sponsored legislation which designated Sept. 17 as Constitution Day and mandated that educational institutions receive federal funding for educational programs on or around this day to help students better understand the Constitution. Although both Citizenship Day and Constitution Day may take place on Sept. 17, their meanings and histories distinguish them — Citizenship Day celebrates immigrants becoming U.S. citizens, and Constitution Day commemorates the nation’s champion document. Nonetheless, Constitution Day today evokes many conflicted feelings surrounding American pride and democracy.
First-year political science major Lydia Beecher said Berman’s talk “made me think about who our democracy was set up to benefit — slaveholding founding fathers.” She also stated the talk inspired her to participate in local elections where she knows her vote will matter. Lipson praised Berman’s perspective on the founding fathers, calling the Constitution “a double edged sword.” According to the political science professor, the document’s legacy is complicated because it enables people to come to power who don’t have the support of the majority but also helps limit the government from becoming authoritarian.
To improve democracy, Berman argued we need structural change: the elimination of the electoral college system, voting rights protections in all states and a reformation of the Supreme Court. But what can individuals do about voter suppression? One action Berman emphasizes is political participation in local elections. The electoral college system makes Americans who do not live in swing states feel like their votes do not matter, but “New York and California have the greatest number of swing districts in the entire country,” Berman said. New York’s 18th congressional district, where New Paltz is located, is a swing district, and students are encouraged to go vote in November’s congressional race.