It's hard to remember if or when we had a week filled with more consequential events that the one just passed. Consider:
-- The "disastrously intemperate" Republican Supreme Court's nullification of a 50- year precedent in overturning Roe v. Wade which stripped millions of women the right to control their own reproductive health and permanently damaged the Court's legitimacy;
-- The Court's nullification of a state's right to regulate gun safety, specifically New York State's concealed carry restrictions which have stood for over a century;
-- The Court's undermining a centuries old ban on direct state aid to the schools teaching religion, fundamental to the principle of separation of church and state;
-- Further evidence of the widespread conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election, with testimony at the January 6 insurrection hearing from former Justice Department officials on the direct involvement of the Malignant Loser, his closest advisors and Republican officials from battleground states to forward fraudulent electors on January 6, 2021; and of the "consciousness of guilt" inquiries about obtaining pardons by a number of the Malignant Loser's Congressional MAGA sedition caucus.
-- The first gun safety legislation in 30 years was signed by President Biden this morning, a small step in the right direction that was constrained by the unwillingness of the Republican Party to get out of the pocket of the National Rifle Rampage Association.
All of this, we are told, is on the ballot in November. Expanding rights vs. restricting rights; sensible gun safety vs. reckless inaction; a secular republic vs. a theocracy; truth vs. lies; democracy vs. autocracy. The majority of the American public is behind the Democratic Party's position on each of these; even Republicans sense the danger in their some of their most absolutist approaches (see below). In just a week, we've seen how quickly the country can change for the worse, and why, yes, elections have consequences. In every election at every level from now on, weighing anything other than these top line choices when voting is delusional ... and suicidal.
BONUS: Heather Cox Richardson on the end of an era.
