Sunday, June 26, 2022

QOTD: Trump's "Baleful Influence Continues"

 

"The baleful influence of Donald Trump continues to be felt in American life despite his decisive election defeat in 2020 and subsequent disgraceful behaviour. The supreme court’s regressive, dangerous and insulting decision to abolish a woman’s constitutional right to abortion was made possible by Trump’s appointment of three highly conservative justices who all voted for the change.

This disaster is not all Trump’s doing. A noisy anti-abortion lobby of rightwing Republicans and evangelical Christians has fought for decades to scrap the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling giving women the right to choose. But they represent, at most, one-third of Americans. Trump adopted their minority view for the same reason he champions the gun lobby – for electoral advantage. (our emphasis) -- editorial in The Guardian.

Rule by a radical right-wing minority has taken hold against the strong majority favoring women's reproductive choice, gun safety, and voting rights. The structure of the Constitution that gives low population, rural cultural states like Nebraska and Idaho equal representation in the Senate with highly populated states like California and New York is a major contributor to the skewed representation of the radical right-wing minority in Government. The Senate filibuster magnifies that skewing dramatically. Now, the Senate's Constitutional role in the confirmation of Supreme Court justices is playing out in disastrous terms for the goal of majority rule.