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Universal Suffrage Quotes

Browse 42 quotes about Universal Suffrage.

Universal Suffrage Quotes

“The word suffrage has nothing to do with suffering. It's from the Latin 'suffragium' and it's about having a vote, a voice, the right to participate in the making of decisions. And isn't that the same struggle (which does have to do with suffering) that we are facing in this country? That all adults should have a vote, a voice, the right to participate in the making of decisions? Universal Suffrage. What Extreme Conditions will it take for us to forge the path to it?”

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Author:Shellen Lubin
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“Imagine if one should drag an innocent passer-by from the street to the operating room of a nearby hospital and force him at gunpoint to perform a delicate operation. The man would burst into tears. However, if one were to ask him to sound off on problems such as nuclear experiments, Vietnam, the borders of Israel, support for Indonesia, aid to Latin America, or recognition of Red China, in most cases he would start spouting opinions.”

PoliticsDemocracyExpertsSpecialistsSpecializationUniversal Suffrage
Book:Leftism Revisited: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot
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“About the principle of representation and the concept of a parliament, today we have grown accustomed to associating them exclusively with the system of absolute democracy, based on universal suffrage and the principle of one man, one vote. This basis is absurd and indicates more than anything else the individualism that, combined with the pure criterion of quantity and of number, defines modern democracy. We say individualism in the bad sense, because here we are dealing with the individual as an abstract, atomistic and statistical unity, not as a ‘person’, because the quality of a person — that is, a being that has a specific dignity, a unique quality and differentiated traits—is obviously negated and offended in a system in which one vote is the equal of any other, in which the vote of a great thinker, a prince of the Church, an eminent jurist or sociologist, the commander of an army, and so on has the same weight, measured by counting votes, as the vote of an illiterate butcher’s boy, a halfwit, or the ordinary man in the street who allows himself to be influenced in public meetings, or who votes for whoever pays him. The fact that we can talk about ‘progress’ in reference to a society where we have reached the level of considering all this as normal is one of the many absurdities that, perhaps, in better times will be the cause of amazement or amusement.”

PoliticsDemocracyFascismUniversal Suffrage
Book:Fascism Viewed from the Right
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“[I]t was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that black citizens had proper recourse for violations of their voting rights through the Department of Justice. . . . .The Voting Rights Act itself was weakened by a 2013 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned the act's most effective enforcement tool, Section 5, requiring jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimmination to seek federal approval before making any changes to voting rules. Voter suppression, not only in the nothern states, but in districts with minority populations within many other states all around the country, remains a pressing problem. Access to tje vote is still manipulated for partisan political advantage, amd true universal suffrage remains an elusive goal.”

Universal Suffrage
Author:Elaine F. Weiss
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“Unlike conservatives and cautious liberals, fascists never wanted to keep the masses out of politics. They wanted to enlist, discipline, and energize them. In any event, by the end of World War I, there was no possible turning back to a narrow suffrage. Young men almost everywhere had been summoned to die for their countries, and one could hardly deny the full rights of citizenship to any of them. Women, too, whose economic and social roles the war had expanded enormously, received the vote in many northern European countries (though not yet in France, Italy, Spain, or Switzerland). While fascists sought to restore patriarchy in the family and the workplace, they preferred to mobilize sympathetic women rather than disfranchise them, at least until they could abolish voting altogether.”

FascismUniversal Suffrage
Book:The Anatomy of Fascism
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“ust discrimination,” in other words, “preference based on merit” is conspicuously absent in a process which, in our society, has a deep and wide influence as a sanctified example—political elections. Whether it is a genuinely democratic election in the West or a plebiscitarian comedy in the East, the one-man-one-vote principle is now taken for granted. The knowledge, the experience, the merits, the standing in the community, the sex, the wealth, the taxes, the military record of the voter do not count, only the vegetable principle of age—he must be 18, 21, 24 years old and still “on the hoof.” The 21-year-old semiliterate prostitute and the 65-year-old professor of political science who has lost an arm in the war, has a large family, carries a considerable tax burden, and has a real understanding of the political problems on which he is expected to cast his ballot—they are politically equal as citizens. Compared with a 20-year-old student of political science our friendly little prostitute actually rates higher as a voter.”

Republic QuotesUniversal SuffrageDemocracy Gone WrongDemocracy FailsDemocracy QuotationsAbsurdity Of Democracy
Book:Leftism Revisited: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot
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“Universal suffrage enfranchised everyone and, in doing so, reduced everyone's power to the smallest share possible. While this was acceptable when it was conceived as impotence over others, it becomes intolerable when we realize that our power over ourselves is included in the bargain. The individual in a regime of universal suffrage has an absolute minimum of influence.”

DemocracyVoteUniversal Suffrage
Book:The Case Against the Modern World: A Crash Course in Traditionalist Thought
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“Whether we are speaking of the philosophical history of the concept (universal suffrage) or the contemporary reality of its application, everyone stops somewhere. They all set a limit, even if that limit is the requirement of adulthood (a completely arbitrary classification if there ever was one). This unwillingness to apply the principle completely tells us something: First, it tells us that almost everyone knows that there ought to be some sort of qualification for electoral participation; and second, it tells us that no one knows exactly what this qualification ought to be. Because everyone agrees, even if unconsciously, on the first point—that qualifications there must be—then we can consider this an implicit acknowledgment that universal suffrage, even where it is preached, must be considered a purely sentimental notion which no one is actually willing to implement. We may then set about examining the second point, concerning the necessity and nature of the qualifications that ought to be set before the voting citizen.”

DemocracyVotingUniversal Suffrage
Book:The Case Against the Modern World: A Crash Course in Traditionalist Thought
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“A declaration of war on the masses by higher men is needed! ... Everything that makes soft and effeminate, that serves the end of the people or the feminine, works in favor of universal suffrage, i.e. the domination of the inferior men. But we should take reprisal and bring this whole affair to light and the bar of judgment.”

PeopleMenShouldWarEndsWholeLightNeededHigherJudgmentMassUniversalAffairFavorsBarsFeminineInferiorsDeclarationDominationSuffrageUniversal SuffrageReprisalDeclaration Of War
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“If the lesser mind could measure the greater as a foot-rule can measure a pyramid, there would be finality in universal suffrage. As it is, the political problem remains unsolved.”

IfsMindProblemWould BePoliticalGreaterFeetUniversalRemainsPyramidsSuffrageFinalityUniversal Suffrage
Book:The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
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“Meiklejohn's position is that free speech in a democracy is not an absolute flowing from the boundless source of some presumed 'natural right.' It is a practical necessity of 'self-government by universal suffrage,' for if the citizens are not permitted to argue out the issues of government, how can they be what they must be in a democracy - the rulers as well as the ruled?”

IfsWellsSelfGovernmentNaturalDemocracyIssuesAtheismPositionSourceCitizensSpeechUniversalAbsolutesArguingPracticalsRulersFree SpeechBoundlessSuffrageSelf-governmentUniversal Suffrage
Author:Max Lerner
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“It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat; and worldly wisdom dictates to her disciples the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond their means, but of living somewhat within them,--for every one, sees how we dress, but none see how we live, except we choose to let them. But the truly great are, by universal suffrage, exempted from these trammels, an may live or dress as they please.”

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Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“The poor, stupid, free American citizen! Free to starve, free to tramp the highways of this great country, he enjoys universal suffrage, and by that right, he has forged chains around his limbs. The reward that he receives is stringent labor laws prohibiting the right of boycott, of picketing, of everything, except the right to be robbed of the fruits of his labor.”

CountryLawEnjoyFreedomPoorStupidCitizensLaborUniversalFruitRewardsChainsLimbsHighwaysAmerican CitizensSuffrageForgedGreat CountryBoycottTrampsUniversal SuffrageLabor LawsPicketing
Book:Anarchism and Other Essays: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition
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“Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.”

IfsNeedsShouldMadeEndsStatesGovernmentSchoolSupportAuthorityUniversalAidsPermanentProvisionSuffrageState GovernmentUniversal SuffrageUniversal Education
Book:Inaugural Speeches from the Presidents of the United States - Complete Edition
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“Democracy turns upon and devours itself. Universal suffrage, in theory the palladium of our liberties, becomes the assurance of our slavery. And that slavery will grow more and more abject and ignoble as the differential birth rate, the deliberate encouragement of mendicancy and the failure of popular education produce a larger and larger mass of prehensile half-wits, and so make the demagogues more and more secure.”

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Author:H. L. Mencken
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“The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased.”

ShouldHas BeensSpiritShould HaveVoteUniversalMurderAbsolutesSatisfiedAvoidedShould Have BeenMenaceSuppressionSuffrageLynchingUniversal SuffrageButchery
Book:The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader
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“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less”

PeopleMenWholeWomenWhiteRightsFeminismCitizensEqualMen And WomenUnionsUnityMalesFeministEqualityGenderCivil RightsLiberationWomens RightsStrong Women1960sEqual RightsEmpowering WomenBeing A WomanPowerful WomenWomen Empowering WomenCitizenryInspirational Strong WomenWomen PowerBeing A Strong WomanWomen RightsWomen EqualityWomen In HistoryI Am WomanSmart WomenStrong Independent WomenEquality Of PeopleWomen RightBeing Independent WomanEquality Of ManStrong Powerful WomenUniversal SuffrageStrong Women MotivationImages Of Strong WomenAnti DiscriminationAmbitious ManAmbitious Women
Author:Susan B. Anthony
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“Does man's freedom consist in revolting against all laws? We say no, in so far as laws are natural, economic, and social laws, not authoritatively imposed but inherent in things, in relations, in situations, the natural development of which is expressed by those laws. We say YES if they are political and juridical laws, imposed upon men by men.”

IfsMenDoeLawPoliticalNamesForceSocialNaturalFictionSituationEconomicDevelopmentUniversalRelationSlaveryDemocraticDoctrineHypocrisyDeceitAnarchyFalsehoodInherentSuffrageUniversal Suffrage
Author:Mikhail Bakunin
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“The socialist parties of all countries are duty bound to fight energetically for the implementation of universal women's suffrage which is to be vigorously advocated both by agitation and by parliamentary means. When a battle for suffrage is conducted, it should only be conducted according to socialist principles, and therefore with the demand of universal suffrage for women and men.”

MenShouldMeanCountryFightingPartyPrinciplesDutyBattleDemandMen And WomenUniversalBoundsSocialistSuffrageAgitationImplementationParliamentaryUniversal SuffrageWomen's SuffrageSocialist Party
Author:Clara Zetkin
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“Carry out the republican principle of universal suffrage, or strike it from your banners and substitute 'Freedom and Power to one half of society, and Submission and Slavery to the other.'”

HalfPrinciplesRepublicanUniversalSlaveryStrikesSubstitutesSubmissionBannerSuffrageOne HalfUniversal Suffrage
Book:Mistress of herself: speeches and letters of Ernestine L. Rose, early women's rights leader
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“The arc of history is longer than human vision. It bends. We abolished slavery, we granted universal suffrage. We have done hard things before. And every time it took a terrible fight between people who could not imagine changing the rules, and those who said, 'We already did. We have made the world new.' The hardest part will be to convince yourself of the possibilities, and hang on.”

PeopleWorldHumansMadeSaidHardDoneFightingVisionImaginePossibilityTerribleUniversalSlaveryHardestGrantedConvinceArcsHard ThingsSuffrageUniversal Suffrage
Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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