It's August 18th, 2020, and that might not mean much to you, but a hundred years ago

today, the 19th Amendment was ratified.

It read, the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged

by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Boom, American women have the right to vote and of story.

Except it's not.

On the centenary of the 19th Amendment's ratification, voter suppression is a growth

industry.

From the shenanigans at the United States Postal Service, we covered on yesterday's

show, to recent attempts to purge voter rolls and battleground states like Pennsylvania

or Wisconsin to the endless lines we've seen across the country as people have tried

to exercise their right to vote in primaries during this pandemic.

That's why I'm speaking to history professor Robin Muncie about the 19th Amendment on the

show today.

Because this centenary, the history of women's suffrage, shows us that the work of being

a democratic citizen is never ending and relentless.

The kinds of struggles that we are having right now over voting rights, we have been having

since the founding of the republic.

They are endemic to our democracy.

Some people could be depressed by that, but if we look at the history of the struggles

of women for voting rights, we see courage and strength and relentlessness.

And that is our path forward too.

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