School House Rock: 'Sufferin' until Suffrage'

Looking for a good song to empower your daughters and teach the to vote? Allow me to commend the virtues of "Sufferin' Until Suffrage." It is a great song, one I am trying to teach to my own children.

Brought to us by the same people who brought us the rest of School House Rock, "Sufferin' Until Suffrage" is a celebration of the 19th Amendment, which in 1920 recognized the right of women to vote. Delivered in the style of gospel music, the song features the powerful vocals of Essra Mohawk and name drops suffragettes like Lucretia Howe and Susan B. Anthony and celebrates the march of progress.

You might think that a song that celebrates something as foundational to our democracy as the right to vote would be uncontroversial. Alas, you would be wrong.

To my dismay, a rather conservative associate of mine complains that the song provides no justification for the anti-suffragette thinking that dominated the nation before the 19th Amendment was ratified. He complains that the video is dominated by supergirl, against the backdrop of grumpy old men. The video, he argues, simply furthers the liberal agenda by making supergirl virtuous and clean, and setting up her constructivist opponents as straw men.

Yes, he appears to have been serious. My associate is rather locked on the notion that whatever position was already present is superior to newer positions by virtue of its greater age, until it has been thoroughly established otherwise.

There us a simple reason the song doesn't try to explain why these dour old men thought the way they did: There was no good reason it. It's a familiar story, really. The System exists the way it does, and at some point, someone notices something is wrong with the System, and they call out in a loud voice, "Why are we doing things this way?" And no one can think of a very good reason, except that It's Always Been Done That Way, and Boy We Sure Were Happy Until You Mentioned It.

Dr. King got a lot of grief over this during the Civil Rights Era. He addressed it beautifully in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. There was simply no reason for segregation, no reason for denying blacks their right to vote, and yet this uppity black man had the gall to insist that the unjust system be stopped, and he outraged plenty of people, mostly because they had no reason for perpetuating the system they had.

I'm sure they had plenty of rationalizations to justify it, just as the establishment had plenty of rationalizations for opposing suffrage.

But no reasons.