The future is getting rather scary. Former President [sic] Trump and his Republican stooges packed the Supreme Court so it is now 6-3 in favor of conservatives. Even with Democrats in control of the House and a Democrat in the Oval Office, our rights – indeed, the very foundation of democracy in the United States – are in dire peril.
Amy Coney Barrett has a strongly conservative record and has expressed a desire to build a “Kingdom of God” on Earth. Granted, it can be just a reference to doing justice and following “God’s will”; but how many times has “following God’s will” been a justification for bigotry, persecution, even genocide? Christians disagree on what this phrase means, but that does not mean it is free of sinister interpretations. Barrett’s statement could thus be perfectly innocent, but her record on hot-button issues reveals that she leans very strongly to the right. A badly unbalanced SCOTUS is bad news for this country.
Already people are hollering to expand the Supreme Court, pointing out that the Constitution does not specify how many justices sit on this Court. Actually, 13 justices would make sense since there are 13 Federal circuit courts, and each SCOTUS justice is supposed to preside over one circuit court. Chief Justice Roberts currently oversees three circuit courts. If there were 13 justices, each one would preside over just one. And if Biden added four justices, even over the howling of the GOP, the court would be 7-6 in favor of progress. However, we must not, and cannot, count on such a change to occur, and for it to go in our favor.
Justice Breyer’s retirement provides Biden an opportunity to add a young, healthy left-winger to the already badly balanced SCOTUS. Republicans, no doubt, are already conspiring to thwart him. They won’t be satisfied until the Supreme Court is solid red, and probably until Congress is, too.
In a previous posting I warned that democracy in the USA is in dire peril. Indeed, fascism and oppression are rising around the globe. Canada and Australia seem to have caught the disease of fascism as they tip towards the right. Russia looked as though it was headed towards genuine democracy for a while – then Putin came to power, and we all know what happened after that.
So, what can we do? The obvious answer is vote. We need to do our homework and pick good candidates to support, and we need to make sure that people in traditionally marginalized communities are registered to vote – and can get to the polls. We need to fight voter suppression and gerrymandering tooth and nail. We need to keep up the pressure on our elected representatives, even if they are on our side. We need to let our foes know that they can either clean up their act or face the possibility of losing the next election – or worse, the primaries. I know of two Democrats in Congress, and I’m sure you know whom I mean, who probably committed political suicide by voting against legislation that would strengthen and protect voting rights.
We must maintain the Democrat majority in the House, and not only defend all blue Senate seats that are up for re-election but also flip some red seats. Failure to do so will almost certainly guarantee further descent into fascism and chaos as more common-sense bills fail to pass – while bills damaging to democracy go through. Republicans, meanwhile, are doing everything they can to squelch the votes of people who tend to vote Democrat, such as the poor and people of color. They refused to pass voting rights bills that we not only perfectly sensible, but absolutely necessary to preserve the very heart and soul of this country. And with our Supreme Court tilted strongly to the right, our sacred prerogative to vote could be in serious jeopardy.
Governor Santis of Florida proposed an “Office of Election Crimes and Security”, which he would staff with up to 52 people, including 20 police officers, and no doubt mostly or even entirely with his cronies and yes-people. The problem is, when you create a governmental department to look for something, they will find it. If you created a governmental office to stop crimes committed by teddy bears, they would find plenty of evidence for stuffed animals doing wrong.
We have an intense battle ahead of us. We must push back against the Republican red wave with all of our political might. Otherwise we can kiss freedom and justice good-bye, and set the clock back to the late 19th century. Or farther back.
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