"What have you got to lose?" -- COVID Donnie on numerous occasions.
It appears, barring some Democratic "arrow in the quiver" shooting down Republican Supreme Court- packing, there will be a vote before Election Day on the third nominee of crime family head and aspiring autocrat Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump to a lifetime appointment to the Court. Should it not be clear to voters out there what's at stake going forward from this debacle, here's a bare list to begin with:
- The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is currently hanging by a thread and is likely to be struck down with a new right- wing "justice" added. Millions will have their health insurance taken away while a pandemic rages. A bolstered Republican Court majority couldn't be bothered to care.
- Roe v. Wade will be overturned. It's another law currently hanging by a thread in a 5-4 Court. Adding any one of Trump's troglodyte choices will certainly doom women's reproductive freedom for the foreseeable future.
- Environmental regulations, including any dealing with climate change, are likely to be struck down or severely limited.
- Voting rights and civil rights laws will be interpreted much more restrictively, the better to keep vote suppressing, gerrymandering Republicans in office.
- Second amendment cases involving sensible gun control legislation will likely be decided in favor of gun humpers who want no restrictions on the sale and possession of military- grade weapons.
That's just what will be cleared away by a strengthened Republican majority. Then, even if we elect a Democratic President and Senate, think about how any progressive Democratic legislation attempting to restore affordable health care, protect a woman's right to choose, address climate change, etc., would be blocked by six Republican "justices."
Just as "it didn't have to be that way" with the Republican bungling of the coronavirus, it doesn't have to be this way after the Republicans pack the Court. So it goes without saying (but we will anyway) that's why we must start by electing Biden-Harris and as many Senators as possible. Then we need to insist they have the political courage to push back on decades of Republican bad faith and norm- busting with some take- no- prisoners hardball of their own. At a minimum,
- Adding justices to the Supreme Court to re-balance it after two seats were stolen by Moscow Mitch McConnell;
- Passing a law granting statehood to the District of Columbia (and Puerto Rico if their public sentiment supports it); and
- End the filibuster, a Jim Crow relic that's allowed right- wing rural states to exercise a minority veto over broadly popular initiatives. Neither re- balancing the Court (including lower federal courts) or expanding statehood is possible without doing this first.
Keep your elected Democratic lawmakers aware of how you feel about these issues, and fortify them as much as possible to fight the fights ahead with the single- minded determination needed.
