Brett Cavanaugh is now an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
This appears to solidify a Conservative Court Majority to read the Constitution in ways that threaten:
-A woman’s right to choose whether to have a legal abortion
-The GLBTQ community’s right to the protection of Constitutional and legal safeguards enjoyed by others
-Efforts to act on the necessity to place environmental safeguards above profits
-The right of workers to join Unions which can bargain for wages and conditions on an equal footing with employers.
-Sensible restrictions on the use of firearms
-The right to vote without having to meet unnecessary voting tests and the fair drawing of district voting lines
-And the list goes on.
President Trump, Senator McConnell and the new Republican Party have won the Confirmation Fight to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the High Court.
But their victory may turn out to be Ashes In Their Mouths (see Genesis 18:27 – Job 30:19 -JFK Cuba Missile Crisis Speech).
Some “victories” turn out to be defeats in that the long term outcome is disastrous and the “victory” turns out to have been a colossal mistake.
This Country of ours was on a path toward the Light, toward better lives for all our citizens and those who come to us seeking haven from violence and oppression.
We have been making progress in “fits and starts” toward ensuring civil rights and equal treatment for those within our shores. And, notably, after defeating the enemies of Democracy in World War II, we became a leader in establishing an Order among nations that worked toward universal peace and security.
The English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote in 1835, of a future time when “..the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world…And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.”
A Dream, perhaps, but one worth working toward.
And suddenly it came to a halt with the election of Donald J Trump and his merry band of selfish enablers. But Trump was not the cause of our present despair, he was merely the willing agent who cashed the check that resulted from years of neglect for people who were being left behind, marginalized and more and more considered unworthy and unwanted inhabitants of their own Country.
Few of us saw it coming.
Richard Rorty did in his famous prediction in 1998, of how so many of our people who were feeling forgotten and downsized would “…decide that the system had failed…and start looking around for a strongman to vote for…and all the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.”
So, they voted for Trump and Brett Kavanaugh sits on the Supreme Court to solidify a majority which may accelerate the rush to repeal the Progress, to retreat to the days when “might makes right,” where the well to do no longer are willing to care for the less fortunate and Democracy perishes in the name of Tribalism uber alles.
Except, except I’m betting on the good sense of the majority of the American people coming to the rescue. Lincoln said he thought the American people would always do the right thing in the end.
I agree. We are slow to act until our fleet is bombed but then we rise up with a will.
So, at the moment, the dark side of our political life has prevailed but not forever.
When our fleet was actually bombed at Pearl Harbor the architect of the attack, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto looked into the future and said “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
This “victory” of installing Brett Kavanaugh on the High Court and the consequences which that may bring could awaken the sleeping giant that is our American majority.
I believe that for Donald J Trump, Senator McConnell and their wiling enablers their “victory” only hastens the day when their effort to turn back Progress toward a fairer, safer and better life for all comes crashing to a halt and all they have left is ashes in their mouths.
May they choke on them.