Could the nomination of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court prove to be the straw that breaks the elephant's back, resulting in a seismic shift in this country away from the radical right and the corporate power brokers? If so, it will prove to be a very painful break and may come too late.
Unlike Harriet Miers (essentially George Bush in drag), Alito's positions are documentable and public. His positions against Roe v Wade, his toleration of racial discrimination and disabilities discrimination, his opposition to the Family and Medical Leave Act, his support for unauthorized strip searches, and his antipathy toward immigrants -- all weigh in against the Senate approving his nomination.
If the Senate Democrats filibuster (and they should), the Republicans will use the so-called nuclear option and rule that filibustering is no longer allowed. Why? Because I believe they are like cornered rats and they will behave that way. Rather than being humbled and contrite about all their setbacks (Iraq, Katrina, Social Security, Guantanamo, Libby), they will stand up on their little hindlegs and gnash their teeth at reality. Have you seen Cheney's & Delay's toothy sneers lately?
In addition, they are hell-bent (and I do mean hell-bent) on packing the Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn all the liberal legislation they regard as anathema to their corporate and religious interests. The little list above of Alito's rulings is only the tip of the iceberg.
George Bush will likely get his way with the Supreme Court. He may go down in history as the worst President ever when it comes to helping the poor and the disadvantaged. He may be remembered as the President who lied his way into an invasion of Iraq resulting in thousands of Americans killed and maimed. He may be the laughingstock of American history because he could not protect the "homeland" from the horrific effects of hurricane Katrina. He may be remembered as the most inarticulate, incompetent President in US history. Nevertheless, despite all these failures, he does want to be remembered for changing the course of American jurisprudence and taking back America for those people he sees as his base and for those ideas and ideals he espouses. It may be his last shot.
So what can the Democrats do? Either way, I believe Alito will be on the Supreme Court by January 2006. It may be that the Democrats take back the Senate in 2006, although it's probably 50-50 right now (even with all that Senate Republicans have going against them.) But it may be that all the GOP shenanigans are enough to give the Democrats a slim majority. Of course, if that happens, the Democrats will use the Republicam precedent of eliminating the filibuster against the Republicans every chance they get. The gloves will be off.
And yet, Democratic electoral successes in 2006, or even 2008, will not be enough to reverse the effects of a Supreme Court doing Bush's ideological bidding, nor will those successes be capable of immediately reversing the damage done by his lower court appointments. The evolution of a new force in American politics will need to take hold to begin to reverse the damage done by George Bush's Supreme Court legacy. And this does not even address the need to confront the ugly gorilla in the living room -- corporate dominance of our social, civil, political and economic lives. And that pretty much sums up the heart of what is possibly the insurmountable problem we face - an America controlled by corporate power with a Supreme Court working on its behalf.
The first item on the agenda for Democrats is to topple the corporate leadership of the party. The Party must push the corporations back with stiff hand and say no. Corporate money has been shifting largely to the Republicans anyway, so let's just make it absolutely and finally obvious to the American people. The Republican Party is corporate power. The Democratic Party is not. The Democratic Party with its grassroots democratic base must make it clear that corporations do not have the same rights as individual American citizens. If we don't, democracy loses, corporations win. It's that simple. Unless the Democratic Party makes the case that money is NOT free speech, and that corporations exist at the pleasure of our democratic institutions, Americans will lose the last vestiges of our democracy. For decades now, American governments, Republican and Democratic alike, have welcomed the corporate brokers into the inner sanctum of power, and have sold this country's democracy to an untouchable, unaccountable elite that cares little for the rule of law or the American democracy from which it has derived so much wealth.
Because I fear Americans are going to lose their ability to limit corporate power and abuse through the courts, and especially through the Supreme Court, we must organize to limit that power in the other two branches of government, and to stand up for freedom and democracy. The only organizational vehicle I see through which we can reverse the plutocracy is the Democratic Party. Let's get to work.
4 comments:
"the evolution of a new force in American politics will need to takehold to begin to reverse the damage done by George Bush..."
Doesn't sound like the description of the Democrats; perhaps a "third party" is called for. Any ideas? Steve Lee
You're right, it doesn't sound like the Democrats right now. Perhaps I meant a new force in the Democratic Party, because I believe it would be easier to change the Democratic Party than it would be to start a new third party. The history of third parties in America is pretty much a history of failure and marginalization. Splitting the liberal/progressive vote only helps the right. Just look at what Nader did in 2000. There really was a huge difference between Bush and Gore.
My wife and I are going to a Democratic Party event (for the first time in a long time) which will be attended by Senators Kerry and Leahy, as well as the candidate for the US House seat to replace Bernie Sanders who is running for Senate, and a number of other leading Democrats in the state legislature and government. While we are pretty lucky in Vermont with so many progressive Democrats, there is still much work to be done to limit the influence of corporate money and power. We are going to carry that message to them.
What do you propose? Are you in favor of a third party? Did you support Nader in 2000?
I know that the "American Independent Party" did get started in reaction to the events around the Vietnam War; it seems that crises generate interest in different solutions to political problems.
Ralph Nader had some interesting things to say but would never be acceptable to enough voters to really drive a party to be successful.Steve Lee
Ralph Nader's basic political analysis and positions are sound. It's his gigantic egoism and self-centeredness that was unsupportable and unelectable. It also was his self-righteous denunciation of the Democrats being as bad as the Republicans that was unconvincing and unappealing.
What we need is moral persuasion. We need a movement directed toward the American people that speaks of their lives, in their everyday terms, not in sound bites of extremism and division. The Republicans have used the language of good and evil very effectively. They have appealed to the lowest common denominators in the American people, and they have won (although I know that is arguable). But let's face it, whether we like it or not, they control the White House and the Congress, and are set now to control the Supreme Court. We must find a way to cut through their simple formulas and communicate in a way that is more effective than theirs.
Choosing the five most important issues that affect the everday lives of the average American and beating the drums constantly on those might be our best strategy right now.
1. The War - Lies, lies and more lies -- dead American men and women, making us less safe not more safe, ruining the future of our children's lives, bankrupting us now, and bringing shame to America's vaunted democratic ideals.
2. Health care -- the more the country ages, the more this one issue dominates -- oppose big PHARMA and its theft from the American people -- Bush and his ilk are bought and paid for by big PHARMA. Make health care a right, not a privilege. More Americans will support this as the baby boom generation ages. Support universal health care and show why.
3. Energy -- Pound this one for all its worth -- alternative energy sources, wind, solar, biofuels, a national Marshall Plan is needed -- pull out all the stops.
4. Poverty and Economic Justice -- If Katrina showed the American people one thing, it was that we live in a country where the disparity between the haves and the have-nots is widening. Economic democracy should be the cornerstone of our message. It is something that the majority of Americans can understand. We don't want give-aways, but we want equal pay for equal work, and we want to be paid well and treated well for the work we do.
5. Reverse the Corporate Domination of Our Lives -- I saved the most important one for last, but it is actually the first thing we need to concentrate on. This one is not easy, but it is absolutely a sina qua non of any success in any other endeavor. If we do not reclaim our democracy from the plutocracy, we cannot succeed. We need to get corporations out of our government, we need to get them out of our Congress, we need to reform electoral giving, we need to take back the airways from them, we need to control their charters and make them responsible and accountable to the people of this country. This challenge, more than any other, is the most difficult, but also the most indispensable. If we continue to allow corporate control of our media, our elections, our culture, our consumer choices, our energy choices, our transportation choices, our courts, our family life, and our children's educations, we will not regain our democracy, political or otherwise. This is the most difficult because most people in this countrey don't feel the way I do about corporations. They don't view them with the same antagonism and concern. They do not personalize the negative effect of corporations on their lives.
I am not suggesting that we eliminate corporations. What I am suggesting is that their influence on our lives and our democracy has gone way, way beyond what our forbears imagined when they permitted the creation of corporations. Corporations behave now as if they have the same rights as people. They behave as if money is free speech. We need to explain why this is anathema to democracy.
Don't give the American people a huge platform of positions...give them five major ideas. Even that may be too much.
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