I have no words today –and that includes the words “happy” and “fourth.”
Instead, I’m going to borrow some words from a couple of my favorite journalists writing for theguardian.com about the events of the past couple of weeks.
Hamilton Nolan was writing after six Supreme Court justices struck down the New York law restricting the right to carry a handgun outside your home. He called the group “elitist fringe lunatics installed in power by the exact opposite of democratic will, accountable only to an imaginary god who instructs them to scrap basic gun control laws in the wake of horrific mass shootings of children while calling itself pro-life.”
Death of Democracy
And, this from Jill Filipovic after the same six justices abolished a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion: “Can a country be properly understood as a democracy… if it subjugates half of its population?
“The global trend suggests that the answer to that is no…. As countries democratize they tend to liberalize women’s rights and they expand abortion and other reproductive rights … But the reverse is also true : as a smaller number of countries move toward authoritarian governance, they constrict the rights of women, LGBT people and many minority groups.
“We have seen this in every country that has scaled back abortion rights, reproductive rights, and women’s rights more broadly in the past several years: Russia, Hungary, Poland, Nicaragua and the United States.”
Just to illustrate what happens when the countries on this dismal list abolish abortion rights, the New York Times published this horrific feature about the plight of Polish women today.
In it, journalists, Katrin Bennhold and Monika Pronczuk focussed on the chilling effect that criminalizing abortion has on medical professionals: In Poland, they have let women die rather than performing an abortion which would save the woman’s life.
Back To Tyranny
In years past when we celebrated America’s independence, we celebrated the country’s freedom from the tyranny of a mad English king. Today, we are facing a new tyranny, that of “nihilistic rightwing radicals seeking to impose their vision of a heavily-armed, male-dominated Christian theocracy on the rest of us.”
I am sickened to my stomach.
Watching what has happened to a once great nation is incredibly sad. The recent court rulings underscore an overreach of power more suited to a dictatorship than a democracy. I only hope it’s not too late for your country to reverse course.
You are right, Eldon. We are slowly turning into an authoritarian country and no-one is doing anything about it, least of all the Democrats. Readers thought Margaret Atwood’s book was dystopian fiction. I say, she barely touched on what might be coming our way.
Of course these are all “Your “opinions,
Happy 4th of July!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
You are right, Sandra. To the extent that I would not reproduce opinions that I do not agree with, they are “my” opinions, but so much more eloquently expressed. Not that I think this is the worst Supreme Court lineup in history. Maybe that distinction belongs to the 2008 Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller that expanded the Second Amendment’s “well-regulated militia” to include any 18-year old+ psychopath male who wants to buy an AK-15 and gun down innocent children in a classroom — or innocent bystanders at a July 4th parade in Chicago.
Of course, that 2008 Supreme Court majority included Roberts, Alito and Thomas who still sit on the court today, 14 years later. That’s why nothing changes and we continue to be helpless in the face of shooting massacres. Sorry, nothing happy about this Fourth of July for those parade-goers who were mowed down in Chicago today!
you are funny
Funny???? I didn’t mean to be. At all. I’m not quite sure where anyone could see humor in what is happening in America today
I see nothing funny about the state of America these days. A once proud nation heralded as a shining beacon of freedom and opportunity reduced to stripping basic rights from females, and standing idly by while people and children are shot dead in the streets, in schools, in grocery stores, and nightclubs. And all the while a supreme court confirms that gun rights are more important than the rights of the innocent to stay safe and alive. No, nothing funny at all, and not much worth celebrating either 🙁
You’re absolutely right, Eldon. Once a shining beacon, today relegated to a list of authoritarian governments which includes Hungary, Poland and Nicaragua. Great company to be in. NOT.
Joanna so well said. I feel much the same. I worry so about what this Supreme Court will do next.
I feel the same way you do, Sandi. The Court is emboldened now. It can rule whichever way it pleases… and let’s not pretend they are adhering to originalism or the Constitution. This is a judicially activist court. The justices who stole their way onto the court (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett) are there for a purpose and they’re fulfilling it.
More guns! And more babies (because we need fodder for all those assault rifles purchased by psychopaths.)
Thank you for reading and commenting.