Elections have consequences. Today is the proof of it.
Imagine if you can a Supreme Court where instead of Neil Gorsuch appointed by Donald Trump you have Merrick Garland appointed by Barack Obama. Just hold that thought, okay? It'll be important later.
Justice William J. Brennan once observed of the nation's highest court:
"If you have five votes here, you can do anything."
True.
Today's decision where the United States Supreme Court declared the federal courts have NO place in determining gerrymandering cases is a hard backhand into the faces of every American citizen. It's a big middle finger to the idea that elections should be free, fair and impartial. Just as
the Roberts Court striking down Section 5 of the 1965 Civil Rights Act was a green light to Republican-led legislatures to impose even more draconian voting restrictions, they will move at light speed to continue carving up the electoral map to elect and protect Republicans and defeat and defenestrate Democrats.
And that's exactly what is going to happen. But it's going to happen to certain groups more than other groups.
This is what happens when Mitch McConnell and his cabal block a Democratic president from appointing a moderate jurist and hold the seat open until there's a Republican president in place to fill the vacancy. Even if Hillary Clinton had been elected president, there would still be McConnell in place to pervert "Advise and Consent" into "Obstruct and Deny."
Facts doesn't matter. Truth has fallen. Your vote doesn't count (if you're one of the lucky ones who are permitted to vote at all). It's not going to matter, so why bother? The game is rigged. The cards are marked. You can't win. How can you? You're not even playing the same game as they are.
The Supreme Court can be a force for fairness and justice. Or it can be a wrecking ball to democracy.
I fear for this country. I fear what happens what will happen when we no longer have choices to make. We only have orders to follow. Maybe Robert Evans
wasn't being a bit hyperbolic with his
It Could Happen Here podcast in his prediction hows we are inevitably drifting closer to a Second American Civil War. Maybe he was being prescient and we're going downhill on roller skates into that terrifying conflagration.
Am I overstating the impact of one teeny-weeny Supreme Court decision by four White conservatives and one wannabee? No. No, I don't think I am. I see the future and I see the increasing fragmentation and looming disintegration of what we used to call the "United" States of America.
But by all means, let's focus instead on being nicey-nice and presenting ourselves as polite little libs even as the ones we consider to be the Bad Guys keep racking up big "W's" and those of us whom consider ourselves to be the Good Guys keep accumulating all these bad "L's." We can be affable and amenable even as they lock the shackles around our feet as we line up to march lockstep into those special showers.
Conciliatory silence is not going to change this. Neither will good manners.
