Any last lingering doubts about where this country is now and about where it could be headed if we don’t see a drastic course correction were resolved by the release of Alito’s draft majority opinion overturning Roe and Casey. I have nothing to add to the massive body of commentary on that draft other than to note that Alito openly trashed the reasoning of Blackmun in Roe and of O’Connor, Kennedy, and Souter in Casey. It’s not every day that one sees an alleged “conservative” publicly disparage the handiwork of 4 former justices, much less 4 from his own party.
In that context (as well as the context of other ongoing threats to a republic that appears to be suffering from the political equivalent of Long Covid at this point), the following rules are appropriate:
1) Our opponents are not ”conservatives.” I’ll let others decide what to call them—“reactionaries” is an obvious term, and “nihilists” is another potential term. As anyone who has ever endured law school knows, stare decisis is a fundamentally conservative concept. As per soon to be Justice Jackson put it:
Stare decisis is a bedrock legal principle that ensures consistency and impartiality of judgments.
The 5 member bloc that currently controls the Court views stare decisis as something much less than a bedrock principle. The GOP’s disinterest in investigation of the 1/6/21 insurrection and its repeated claims of “fraud” about an election that was remarkably free and fair under the circumstances shows a fundamental disdain for our established institutions of government. As was demonstrated in 1861, our system cannot function if the losing side is not willing to accept the results of a free and fair election. Our opponents do not wish to see any system function that does not put them in power.
2) No Dem should ever consider calling McTurtle a man of honor again. McTurtle making up a “rule” to prevent Garland from even getting a hearing and then breaking that “rule” to ram through the ACB nomination 4 years later is prima facie evidence of his lack of honor. His crocodile tears when he voted acquit Trump on his second set of high crimes & misdemeanors offers further substantiation. His misbegotten 37 years in the Senate removes any lingering doubts.
3) SS and Medicare are not ”entitlements.” They’re earned benefits. Wage-earning American citizens contribute to them for years with the understanding that they will ultimately receive benefits from their investment. SS was the handiwork of this country’s greatest president of the past 7 score and 17 years, and Medicare was the handiwork of his political protégé. We should be proud of those presidents’ signature achievements and we should never forget that millions of Americans, including Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand, have benefitted from them.
4) We should be equally proud of minimum wage and legal protections for unionization, and we should continually advocate increasing minimum wage and passing the PRO Act. We should oppose awarding $10BN contracts to union-buster Amazon. We should ALWAYS recall that unions are critical to Dems' electoral success and act accordingly at all times.
5) We can never understate the extent of the threat that now faces us. Once Roe and Casey go, will Obergefell be far behind? Thomas and Gorsuch are ready to overturn the seminal libel case of NY Times v. Sullivan. Across the street, the QAnon Caucus is seeking to grow, and it currently appears that it will be part of a House majority next year. Rick Scott's manifesto seeks to elect a Senate that would turn this country into Hungary with nukes.
6) Multi-millionaires and corporations who swell the campaign coffers of candidates who do their bidding are not ”donors” by any remotely reasonable definition of that term. Any corporation that “donates” to a candidate without getting something tangible in return is violating its fiduciary duties to its shareholders. I prefer the term “investors”, but the more neutral term “contributors” is also acceptable.
It’s time to stop playing by a set of rules that only work to our detriment. It’s time for No More Mr. Nice Guy. It’s time to be proud of a set of traditions that have tangibly benefitted tens of millions, and it’s time to stop pretending that our opponents don’t want to prevent POC from voting, do respect democratic norms, and don’t believe that:
abortion stops a beating heart.
It’s past time to draw lines in the sand and to defend them by every means at our disposal. It’s time to recall this statement of core principles from our patron saint and to update them to our times:
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.
I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.