It’s easy enough to say that in my late nights of scrolling, I’m being silly about what I’m going to wear on Election Day 2024.

The American living in Spain in me, wants to wear nothing but sneakers, an oversized sweatshirt, and leggings to be comfy as I hopefully wait in a really long line, rain or shine.

I’ll be driving 8.5 hours before I even get in line to vote. I want to be comfortable, but should I feel comfortable when so much is riding on that day? Should I dress for success? Maybe that energy will translate to an outcome I so greatly desire (well, I have a few, but getting the witch Marsha Blackburn out of the Senate is right up there.)

Or should I dress like a Spaniard?

But here’s what I’ll really be wearing (and this is obviously not an exhaustive list):

1769- When the American Colonies adopted common laws, based upon Blackstone commentaries, “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law? The very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of her husband under whose wing  and protection she performs everything.”

1855- Missouri v. Celia, a slave, which declared that property (slaves) have no right to defend herself against rape from her master.

1870- When Ellen Sherman, wife of General William T Sherman, helped found the Anti-Suffrage Party, and advocated that women’s participation in the voting process threatened their roles as wives, mothers, educators and philanthropists.

Less than 100 years ago:

1984- The State of Mississippi delayed the 19th Amendment and fully ratified it, finally granting women the vote.

2017- Catherine Cortez Masto becomes the first Latina United States Senator.

2021- Kamala Harris is the first woman to hold the position of Vice President in the United States.

2021- Deb Haaland, becomes the Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American woman to serve in a Presidential Cabinet.

2022- The Supreme Court allows States to inflict and commit injustice and essentially state sanctioned murder by allowing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey to be overturned.

I don’t think I need to say more. It’s all pretty recent in our minds.

All this to say, do I dress comfortable when living life in America is anything but? Do I wear black out of feeling morose? Do I try my best to find a kitschy sweatshirt that walks the fine line of acceptable legal voting attire?

But as I wait in a (fingers crossed) robust, enthusiastic, and extremely long line on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, I’ll be prepared to wear the weight of the last 250 years and:

My daughter’s future.

So in my modern suffragette outfit, I’ll vote in my skirt, sneakers, crisp white shirt, with my purple and gold detailed scarf tied in a bow around my neck, and I will be casting my ballot in my blue county in red Tennessee.

PS: I’m not voting for a woman just because I’m a woman. I’m voting for the hope that more “progressive policies” can be even more progressive, our climate gets the justice it deserves, and that we can end our blanket acceptance of the atrocities in Gaza, and now Lebanon.

My dearest Fi, met Thomas Jefferson and told him to include women in the sequel, WORK.