Is voting a right or a privilege? I think most of us would agree it's a right but recently we see it being treated as a privilege you have to earn. They did this after the Civil War and even made people pay a poll tax which was eventually found illegal. The idea was that only certain people should vote so a way of life could be preserved.
There is no doubt that over the years the country has changed as we have expanded. Many more people are now eligible to vote including women. Why they couldn't vote originally is related to historical and in some cases biblical beliefs about how independent they should be.
We are no longer the country that was founded which primarily represented the interests of property-owning white men. This was pretty much the situation in the parent country although there you had nobles to deal with.
The first big breakthrough was the election of Andrew Jackson, a representative of the common man. He was by the time he was elected a wealthy plantation owner, but he came from common stock. This was, to some extent the first populist President and the conflict between Populism and the establishment is an ongoing thread in American history.
Going back to the original question, populism rose because the right to vote was inalienable. It allowed the common man to be heard. Restrictions on voting today is odd since its being pushed by people who might be called populists because they oppose the establishment.
We should not allow the right to vote to be abridged in this country It is probably our most fundamental right.
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