Except for the damage inflicted directly on the Constitution in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, 23rd and 26th Amendments, our main problem since 1876 has been the nullification of it through Supreme Court jurisprudence and many “corrupt bargains” between the two parties.
(The deal that traded Florida’s electoral votes to make Republican Rutherford Hayes president in 1877 in return for the premature end of Reconstruction was called the “Corrupt Bargain” in the North. The seeds of our decline begin there.)
>Except for the damage inflicted directly on the Constitution in the [snip] 26th Amendments [...]
The 26th? Isn’t that [basically] saying that all Citizens who are of the age of majority cannot be barred from voting because of their age?
Amendment XXVI.
Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.
(Note: Amendment 14, Section 2 of the Constitution was
modified by Section 1 of the 26th Amendment.)
SECTION 1.
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen
years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
SECTION 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.