Taking a leak

Well, all the air has been sucked out of the news cycle with the internet leak of the text of a draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade. The atmosphere will be that way for quite a while, no doubt. 

The Court usually waits until late June to announce its hottest decisions; then they ditch the robes and high-tail it out of town for the summer before the political fallout hits. That won't be possible with this one. Somebody, probably an unhappy law clerk but we'll likely never know, has made a really bad decision and spilled the beans. The screams are going to be loud and long for the next month or two.

The high level of outrage is as it should be. The country's now been turned back 50 years, and along with other recent developments, more like 100.

But what I can't get over is how many people seem surprised. I'm not. 

Did you think the Republican-appointed justices wouldn't go this far? Did you think Sam Alito was a nice soccer dad from the New Jersey suburbs who respected precedent? Did you think the Trump appointees would give a damn about the stability of the country, and the reputation of the Court? Did you think they were telling the truth in their confirmation hearinngs? If you thought any of these things, you need to start thinking more critically.

Once they got control of the Court – real control – anyone could have seen that the Republican Party was going to start dismantling personal freedoms one by one. Indeed, they're just getting started. But abortion was the big prize, the cherry on top of their sundae of repression, their wet dream of many decades. Now is their shining moment. If it weren't this year, it would be next year.

You know what? Republicans are bad people, and you should never vote for one, for anything, ever. That has been obvious for at least five years now, if not longer. 

So what to do now? Protest marches? Street fights with the cops and the Trump people? Demand that the Democrats pass a federal law guaranteeing the right to choose? You'll have to get that last one past Manchin and Sinema, plus who knows which other closet DINOs, and they'd have to nuke the filibuster rules in the Senate; don't bet your lunch money on that.

No, for most progressives, all that's left is the blame. Blame Trump. Blame McConnell. Blame that prince Anthony Kennedy. Blame Bush. Blame Rupert Murdoch. Go ahead, curse them all; I do.

But none of that's as satisfying to Democrats as turning on each other. Blame anybody who didn't vote for Hillary. Blame the party machine figures who were determined to force Hillary down everyone's throat. Blame Ruth Ginsburg for not retiring. Blame Obama for not twisting her arm. Blame Biden for confirming Clarence Thomas. Blame Bernie for being Bernie. There, feel better?

It's a dark, dark day, but there's really not much anybody on the left can do about it, except vote, and in case you haven't noticed, that hasn't been a real satisfying experience lately. There are lot of ignorant, bigoted, dangerous people in the United States, more than you ever would have thought. This is their country now; we're just living in it.