Ruth Bader Ginsburg is gone. She was the Notorious RBG, an unintentional pop icon who provided a powerful role model for young women, a brilliant legal mind, and the conscience of the Supreme Court. She struggled to stay with us, knowing what her absence would mean.
Her loss is a gift to the Right, to whom it seems that Constitutional rights are just for Christian white men. To whom no action is too extreme, or, forgive me, too low to stoop to, if it will further their goal of complete domination of America. An America that looks like an earlier version of itself, with white men calling all the shots and getting all the advantages. They've been getting there by making artificial majorities drawn from some of the strangest shaped voting districts ever seen, by unconcealed voter suppression, and by unequal application of the law.
I promised not to call names or apply labels, so I won't call the Republican Senate majority hypocrites. It is unnecessary. Their actions are recorded in living color for everyone to see. I search for any scintilla of honor in their actions, and I can't find it. What about fairness? What about simple honesty? How anyone can imagine that these so-called representatives would bother keeping their word on any issue is beyond my understanding.
The leading villains of this story are Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader and Lindsey Graham as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2017, Graham was recorded several times saying if he tried to fill a Supreme Court vacancy during the last year of a president's term, we could hold it against him. McConnell was asked in May of this year what he would do if a vacancy came up, and he gleefully said, "I'll fill it." Both men have contradicted their 2017 promises, and their excuse is pretty much, "Because I can." Many Republicans are predictably falling in line.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine seeks to separate herself from this unappetising group with the recent statement, "Given the proximity of the presidential election ... I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election. In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on November 3rd." Notice she "shoulds" a lot in this statement, but never actually says that she will NOT vote to replace Justice Ginsburg. Nor did Collins vote with Mitt Romney earlier in impeachment proceedings. To her I say, take the should out of your mouth and make a stand. Without the work of RBG you very likely wouldn't have been elected in the first place.
A friend, a lifelong Democrat, says Dems will never win because they insist on fighting fair. Reluctantly, I am beginning to to come around to that point of view. The players on the Right have not been shy about changing the rules in the midst of the game so they can win. Refusing a hearing to President Obama's candidate to replace Justice Scalia is only one example. They later used the "nuclear option" to change the 60-vote rule to a simple majority to end debate on the vote on Neil Gorsuch, who filled the vacancy that should have gone to Obama's candidate. Let's hope if a Democratic majority is achieved on November 3rd, they will have learned their lesson. After being punched in the mouth for four years, it's time to get up, wipe the blood off your faces, and represent your constituents by taking whatever legal steps are necessary.
I believe in the two party system; I believe it supports the Constitutional checks and balances of government. I think it's time for a Renaissance of cooperation, of the understanding of a peaceful transfer of power. I believe in the protection of minorities guaranteed in a Constitutional Republic, but not in having the will of the popular majority denied by that minority on matters of fairness and equality in gender, religion, national origin, and who we can love. Americans should wake up to the fact the the true minority in the USA is not the one with black or brown skin. It is the privileged one percent of citizens who control the vast majority of the wealth in this country. Republicans have persuaded some members of the shrinking middle class that the Republican party represents them. It does not, and this has never been more apparent than in the last four years, with a transfer of wealth to the very richest in society not seen since the years preceding the Great Depression.
Justice Ginsburg's legacy is set to be wiped away. Please do all you can to prevent it.
***Vote for the Biden/Harris ticket. It is a vote for honesty and fairness in government.
***Vote for MJ Hegar for US Senate to promote a Democratic majority in the Senate and end governmental gridlock.
***Vote for Democrats in Texas House and Senate and prevent further gerrymandering to guarantee fair representation of local communities and neighborhoods again.
TURN TEXAS FROM BLOOD RED TO TRUE BLUE IN NOVEMBER.
Commentaires