Posted on 07/01/2018 12:22:06 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It matters less, now, if President Donald J. Trump serves only one term. It matters less if he is impeached. It matters less if Robert Mueller indicts him for colluding with a foreign power. With the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump is a hairbreadth away from sealing his legacy as one of the most influential (if petty, crude, divisive, corrupt and antidemocratic) presidents in American history.
It is hard to overestimate the magnitude of this development. Trump has promised to appoint another hardcore conservative, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his minions will roll right over Senate Democrats to confirm him (or her). That jurist will likely be in his or her 40s or 50s and serve for decades.
That strongly suggests that for the rest of my life — and through a considerable part of my child’s adult life — the nation’s highest court will be a bastion of ultra-right doctrine, hostile to progressive causes of all sorts. That court will likely kill off reproductive rights, starve unions, look askance at affirmative action, eviscerate voting rights and abuse criminal defendants. It will coddle violent police officers, kowtow to corporations and re-write the First Amendment, bulldozing Thomas Jefferson’s famed “wall of separation between church and state.”
This is a huge victory for the forces of retrenchment. Conservatives are much better than liberals at playing the long game, and rich political players on the right have been plotting to remake the court in their own image for decades now. Even before Kennedy’s announcement (and with Kennedy’s assistance), the high court had shifted rightward. Just this summer, the court has weakened reproductive rights, upheld Trump’s hateful, anti-Muslim travel ban and hammered public sector unions. It aided and abetted homophobes with a ruling that sided with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.
McConnell gambled on that shift — and won — when he stymied President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland. Spitting on the U.S. Constitution, McConnell defied precedent, mocked tradition and trammeled bi-partisanship, insisting that no high court nominee should be confirmed in an election year. Senate Republicans later embraced Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch, who has become a reliable ultraconservative vote. Of course, McConnell quickly reversed himself after Kennedy’s announcement, revealing that the Senate will vote on a nominee in the fall. Never mind that it’s an election year. Conservatives see their long-held goal of a far-right court just a step or two away, and hypocrisy is their handmaiden.
For much of my life, the Supreme Court served as a defense for oppressed minorities — a bulwark that pushed political and civic institutions to fully respect our rights as citizens. Through several decades, the highest court issued rulings that desegregated public schools, upheld voting rights, sanctioned desegregation of public accommodations and respected affirmative action. It broadened protections for criminal defendants. As feminism took center stage, the court upheld reproductive rights.
And even as the court turned rightward after the appointment of Justice Clarence Thomas, it still found occasion to grant succor to the oppressed. Kennedy’s libertarian streak helped to sustain that impulse. He upheld Roe v. Wade. He championed gay rights. He voted against the death penalty for juvenile offenders. But Trump’s list of potential nominees likely includes no Kennedys.
While the Trump-McConnell machine is taking all the credit for their victory, they had help from the left — from the #NeverHillary crowd. Progressive activists such as actress Susan Sarandon insisted that the Democratic nominee would be no better than Trump. Green Party nominee Jill Stein drained votes away from Clinton. Young progressive voters stayed away from the polls in the 2016 presidential election because they weren’t “energized” by Clinton’s campaign.
They helped put Trump in office, and they will reap what they have sown. So, unfortunately, will the rest of us.
spitting on the Constitution
is used by people who want justices who make **** up.
At least Ms. Tucker shows some individual thought about teachers unions being more interested in their organizations than in their students. Every other article she has listed is typical Democrat group-think.
What I find funny about all of this is Trump has spent the last 30 years dealing with unions, protesters, local politicians and others looking to harm his business interests. He’s fared pretty well.
Now the next generation of leftists, at the behest of those Trump has already beaten are trying to do the same. They think that Trump is some sort of neophyte politician with little to no experience in handling protesters.
They wanted God, but had wrong ideas of what He would be like or what He wanted. One cannot divorce purity and generosity. With no effort to embrace the Author of purity, their precious generosity became profligacy. But the right encounters a risk too. That they will boast purity and offer nothing as a sacrifice to God.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I read that cry for help.
Maybe the Man of Sorrows will convince you it isn’t yet time.
LOL. But still she fantasizes about Trump not winning a second term or being indicted.
Take away Reproductive Rights? Is the Supreme Court going to decide that you can’t reproduce?
This is my fault and I’m proud of it.
Cynthia Tucker is a black racist bitch with a long and open hatred of conservatives.
So much whine! Har!
Only super elite deplorables can reproduce!
Cynthia Tucker is a dyed-in-the wool Lefty.
If she says A, then you know the correct answer is B.
I like that.
I only spent 24 years and a week in the USAF. I have been retired for closing on 21 years. If I had done what she did my first week in the USAF, one time, I’d probably still be in prison. Deservedly so.
Life is tough, and then you start Kindergarten. She never did get that lesson, obviously, and she’s got way too many supporters who don’t think that she should have. Maybe it would make a difference if one of the lives lost was the spouse or child of the author of that article. And maybe that person is too stupid to understand that. Probably the case.
Old Student
WRM, MSgt, USAF(Ret.) 1973-1997
“Take away Reproductive Rights? Is the Supreme Court going to decide that you can’t reproduce?”
For some people, that might well be a good thing... ;)
Old Student
Thanks for serving us for so long.
I’m not sure if this is really a big deal outside of a few wedge issues. Kennedy after all generally sides with conservatives. Now, replacing one of the leftist judges, that would be big.
Cindy needs a good bowel movement. She’ll feel better after that.
The entire country should be hostile to progressive/communist causes aka American liberalism. Lord knows there have been more than a few states in the union that have been wrecked and left in total ruins by these people!
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