Trump Won’t go Away
I used to think that once Trump lost the election, this ugly chapter in our history would come to a close. People would come to their senses and realize that we had suffered with a P.T. Barnum character as President for 4 years and his support would dry up. I felt a calmness after he left office as I no longer found myself waking up fearing what the day’s news stories would bring. In fact, the calmness was so significant that I no longer felt the need to post my political thoughts.
But Trump has not faded from the political scene. He is still commands power through his faithful base. He may run in 2024. He may win in 2024. But irrespective of his future political path, he has scarred this country for many years to come through his appointments to the Supreme Court.
An Extreme Supreme Court
We are saddled with an Neanderthal rightest court that does not reflect the views of the American people for at least the next 20 years. In that time, they could fundamentally reshape the laws and way government operates in our country.
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade yesterday was not just a blow to reproductive rights, it revealed the extreme agenda of the most conservative justices. Justice Thomas wrote, “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” In Griswold v. Connecticut, the court ruled in 1965 that married couples have a right to access contraceptive. In 2003, the court said in Lawrence v. Texas that states could not outlaw consensual gay sex. And the court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage (the Hill). Justice Thomas wants to remove all of these protections which would allow states to pass laws restricting access to contraceptives and outlaw gay sex and marriage. Thomas is advocating turning the clock back to the 1950s.
The Hardest Fight may be Still to Come
An immediate questions is what can we do? There is no easy answer. Some have suggested adding members to the Supreme Court to dilute the conservative’s power. That would be extreme and create a precedence that might truly unravel our Constitution. I do not have an answer to how to fix this but I do know that curtailing the power of the rightest factions in the Republican Party is central to any solution. Immediate actions to take include: