This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It first appeared at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1414622
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1414622
While it’s been dominated by right wingers for a few years, thus far their decisions haven’t been subject to much scrutiny by the public at large. The first hints this court would be a political arm of the GOP were the continued abuse of the shadow docket to further that party’s agenda in the Texas vigilante and 6 week abortion ban matter, and stripping OSHA of its ability to protect workers from COVID.
The overturning of “Roe,” along with its likely decision to open the door to nationwide “open carry” with little ability for local regulation, are easy to understand for Americans, and reveal what lawyers have known — the Supreme Court is run by radical theocratic right wingers.
It will only get worse, thanks to minority rule, voter suppression, and extreme gerrymandering.
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Destroying Democracy from within.
The only way that the GOP achieves this is through our ignorance, apathy, cynicism, stupidity and laziness.
It does not have jack shit to do with the GOP.
There are already enough of us and we have the capability, starting with the J6 Hearings, continuing with the Congressional elections this fall and including a lot of Hard Work.
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Well, it’s 90% due to the ignorance, apathy, cynicism, stupidity, and vile hatred of the GOP’s deplorable base, but yeah, I get your point.
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It’s incredibly frustrating living in a minority rule ‘democracy’. It’s doubly so when the minority that rules our ‘democracy’ has a decided fascist tilt and has made it clear that they’ll lie, cheat and steal to gain power and they’ll never relinquish power without first resorting to violence and bloodshed.
Not only are the authoritarian and fascism supporters a numerical minority in this country, they’re also a cultural minority. And yet they have veto power over the majority even when the lose elections and thanks to our federal structure they have a huge advantage in the Senate due to their current dominance of small state politics and in the executive due to our electoral college system. They are currently working overtime to cement their total control of the legislative branch through obscene gerrymandering.
It’s their stolen, and thus illegitimate and corrupted, supreme court that will allow them to get away with silencing the majority and bringing about the destruction of the founder’s gift to this nation.
The elections of '22 and '24 are vital to our chances. We can and must defeat them and then correct those parts of our system of governance that have fallen prey to the tyrannical minority of anti-democratic authoritarians. There are ways to even the playing field but time is short for the opportunity.
We members of this forum know this and we must get the message out to that large segment of lightly or non-engaged public.
Sorry for the rant (steps down from soapbox).
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If the overwhelming support for Donald “grab her by the …” Trump proved anything it is that “values” in front of the word “voter” is and has always been code for race. So the one thing we can say for certain is that most Republicans are as against this decision as Democrats as evidenced by all the hand ringing over “the leak” instead of taking a victory lap on keeping a promise over 40 years in the making.
Before getting to that, does anyone else remember Harriet Miers, Bush Jr. first nominee to the Supreme Court position now held by Samual Alito. I say this to point out had Bush been successful at appointing his cleaning lady to the Supreme Court, it is likely Roe would not about to be overturned. But then had Reagan gotten his first choice with Robert Bork instead of having to settle for Anthony Kennedy, Roe may have been overturned in 1992.
The GOP is a coalition of one issue voters, God, guns, gays race above all else, and abortion. Abortion comes last because it is the one issue that all Republicans say they agree on but in fact, to the extent they agree, it is not what they say.
That is the reason for the leak of the draft, almost certainly by a supporter of overturning Roe and if I was to guess it is most likely linked to Clarence Thomas and or his wife, they did not want a repeat of what happened in 1992 when Republicans were able to get Kennedy to switch sides and in Casey keep abortion legal while restricting it for poor women.
So the question is as the GOP is a coalition of one issue voters not much caring about other issues, will the 53% of White women who voted for Trump mostly because of Race, now be concerned that instead of being in the “privileged class”, they in fact are like “those people”, less than equal.
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During the past half hour of our local news we have had three weather reports that may or may not be correct.
Why not replace two with information like this article?
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All Five Justices Who Seem Poised To Overturn Roe Were Confirmed By Senators Repping A Minority Of Voters
Just like the founders intended.
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That’s kinda the point. Demoralize the populations with a message that Democracy doesn’t work, while energizing and rewarding the extreme minority. It’s a spiral that’ll be hard to break out of.
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And all but Thomas elevated by a president who received less than 50% of the vote.
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It’s called the Connecticut Compromise. I don’t think we need an article on TPM Cafe to remind us that it was the cost of of the ratification of the Constitution.
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It’s a spiral that’ll be hard to break out of.
This. I never fully grasped the influence of the senate imbalance when it comes to actual majority power, and I can see that the imbalance has been fomenting this fascist situation. I t isn’t all MAGA. MAGA has survived as the senate imbalance enabled it, and thus encouraged it. It opened the door and they just walked through.
It isn’t just the Supreme Court. The US is in serious trouble as its fundamental political processes are failing to be fundamentally democratic.
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Their perjury during the confirmation process is perfidious and they should be sanctioned… if the Court had any integrity left. My suspicion of Alito remains firm: he leaked the draft to force Robert’s hand —- Robert would have wanted the law modified and not chucked out wholesale.
People talk about losing Democracy. We lost it a long time ago. It’s more like a fight to get it back.
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You think? My understanding is that The Connecticut Compromise was intended to make it so the minority wasn’t repeatedly steamrolled by the majority. The senate and its rules have become so perverted and twisted that the situation we have now is the minority repeatedly steamrolls the majority. I don’t think what we are seeing now is quite what they intended or the way it was supposed to work.
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A substantially influential minority of the Founders, actually. They insisted that they would hold their breath until they turned blue, then would rejoin the Crown’s forces against the Yankees and the northwest territories, rather than give up slavery.
(It wasn’t 1807 yet, let alone 1833.)
Or if the concerned Senator from Maine had any integrity left. Enough to either: vote to drop the filibuster and vote to expand the SCOTUS, or vote for conviction (removal) of the perfidiators (including a vote to drop the filibuster) if the House should impeach them.
So much for how they will ‘faithfully and impartially discharge’ justice. Maybe they crossed their fingers behind their backs.
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As Republicans, finger crossing is not needed as all words that escape their lips are disingenuous lies and expected to be such
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Catholic Sharia.
Coming to a neighborhood very near you.
Very near…
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