It Started In 2000: How The Supreme Court Attacked Our Democracy
While most Americans (not the Kool-Aid drinking Trump cultists) watch in horror an insane bigot destroying our nation and creating havoc around the world, the media focuses on how our foreign adversary Russia attacked our democracy in 2016 and how the attack continues as the monster they created supports Russian dictator, former KGB spy Vladimir Putin over American intelligence agencies. But as usual they and the clueless, hapless Democratic leaders are missing a key point. Even when Russian Agent Orange appointed Bret Kavanaugh, a man who represented George W. Bush during the fight over Florida in 2000, to the Supreme Court seat that Justice Kennedy, one of the five justices who ended that fight by appointing Bush President, conveniently vacated, no one whose commentary I watched or read mentioned the Supreme Court's attack on our democracy at the beginning of the 21st Century. Even when talking heads pointed out that conservatives tend to focus on the Supreme Court when voting for President while liberals don't, they didn't connect that tendency to what happened in 2000.
When five conservative justices, including Kennedy and Thomas, the only one of those activist, too political justices still left on the Court, stopped the vote count in Florida, handing the election to the son of the man who appointed Thomas to the Supreme Court by giving him a state governed by another son of the man who appointed Thomas, the attack on our democracy that ultimately led to the election of an insane, incompetent bigot had begun. Like Hillary sixteen years later, Gore won the popular vote (by 538,948). After the Supreme Court stopped the recount, Bush "won" Florida by 537 votes, giving him the electoral college. When Bush barely won a second term (Trump's 2016 electoral college victory looks impressive only in comparison to GW's "victories" in 2000 and 2004), he appointed Roberts and Alioto. Then those two justices joined with the three remaining justices who appointed Bush President to gut the Voting Rights Act, which allowed states, including several that Trump barely won, to pass voter suppression laws that helped (along with Russian disinformation) to reduce the number of blacks who voted in 2016. The same five justices passed Citizens United, which unleashed such rich conservative power brokers as the Koch brothers. In other words, after their 2000 coup, the supposedly apolitical Supreme Court had become very political, which the conservatives noticed while the liberals kept going high (sometimes I wonder if they actually are high, too drugged to see what's happening right in front of their eyes).
At the time of the 2000 attack on our democracy by the Supreme Court, I said that if a third world country had conducted an election of a new democratic leader the way we had, we would have sent former Presidents Carter and Ford (who was still alive then) to that country to teach those ignorant nonwhites how a democracy is supposed to work. A justice appointed by one candidate's father cast the deciding vote that stopped the recount of a state governed by the same candidate's brother, making that candidate President. Trump wants to be an autocrat, running the country with his family members, but the Bushes have come closer to that dream than any family, even the Kennedys, who in the early sixties had a President, Attorney General, and Senator from Massachusetts. Three of the four conservative justices currently serving on the Court were appointed by the Bush family. The other one is Gorsuch, and we know how he got there.
I also noticed during that attack that the so-called "liberal" mainstream media had helped Bush by declaring him the winner. Of course, the slick conservatives accused the media of being biased toward Gore because they first declared him (accurately) the winner of Florida. But at that point, Gore needed more electoral college votes to become President. Once Bush was declared the winner by the media, he was on the high ground from which he could call his opponent a sore loser. Republicans, unlike Democrats, know how to use the weapons they have been given. What I didn't sufficiently notice was the role played by the tabloid NATIONAL ENQUIRER. I've commented on the use of sexual misconduct to attack powerful black men and mentioned Jesse Jackson as one of the targeted men (See 5/27/18 post), but I didn't figure out (so maybe I should stop throwing shade on other clueless liberals) that the ENQUIRER was working for the conservatives until Bush had been President for approximately two years, and the tabloid was still going after Bill and Hillary Clinton (kind of like the GOP representatives now). Of course, in 2000, the ENQUIRER revealed Jackson's love child "coincidentally" as he was fighting to help the Gore campaign. Jackson was involved partly because GW's brother Jeb had used an early version of the voter suppression strategy to prevent blacks in Florida from voting.
After the 2000 attack, the conservatives no longer saw (if they ever did) the Supreme Court as apolitical. That is why they refused to allow Obama's nominee to have a hearing in 2016. And that is why not only the sleazy Ted Cruz, but the relatively (certainly by GOP standards) saintly John McCain were promising not to allow Hillary's Supreme Court nominees to be seated if (they were thinking "when") she became President. Most shamefully, that is why many establishment Republicans voted for a corrupt, narcissistic, sadistic, sexist, racist sexual assaulter to be President, putting our country and the world at risk. And that is why some Republicans still don't regret their choice. On my short list of candidates, along with the apocalyptic four horsemen--Trump, Pence, Ryan, and McConnell--as well as the horrible GOP representatives on the Oversight and Intelligence committees, for The Worst Man (Devil) In The World is commentator Hugh Hewitt. The pale, smug Hewitt loves to brag about how these relatively young new justices will rule for decades. I guess he doesn't realize that death can come to anyone at any age and during any administration.
When trying to focus our attention on how much racism matters, I've said that we can't fix our democracy until we know what's wrong with it--racism. We also can't fix it until we know what broke it. The Supreme Court attack in 2000 broke our democracy, giving us in 2016 a man who believes in autocracy and a party (maybe two) who believes in apartheid. Suppressing the nonwhite vote obviously hurts our democracy. The nonwhite voters gave us Obama who cleaned up the mess made by the Supreme Court and the white folks' President; now the Supreme Court, the media, and the white folks have given us an insane bigot who at best is Putin's puppet and at worst a traitor, a secret agent. Who is going to clean up his mess? Putin, when he takes over the world?
When five conservative justices, including Kennedy and Thomas, the only one of those activist, too political justices still left on the Court, stopped the vote count in Florida, handing the election to the son of the man who appointed Thomas to the Supreme Court by giving him a state governed by another son of the man who appointed Thomas, the attack on our democracy that ultimately led to the election of an insane, incompetent bigot had begun. Like Hillary sixteen years later, Gore won the popular vote (by 538,948). After the Supreme Court stopped the recount, Bush "won" Florida by 537 votes, giving him the electoral college. When Bush barely won a second term (Trump's 2016 electoral college victory looks impressive only in comparison to GW's "victories" in 2000 and 2004), he appointed Roberts and Alioto. Then those two justices joined with the three remaining justices who appointed Bush President to gut the Voting Rights Act, which allowed states, including several that Trump barely won, to pass voter suppression laws that helped (along with Russian disinformation) to reduce the number of blacks who voted in 2016. The same five justices passed Citizens United, which unleashed such rich conservative power brokers as the Koch brothers. In other words, after their 2000 coup, the supposedly apolitical Supreme Court had become very political, which the conservatives noticed while the liberals kept going high (sometimes I wonder if they actually are high, too drugged to see what's happening right in front of their eyes).
At the time of the 2000 attack on our democracy by the Supreme Court, I said that if a third world country had conducted an election of a new democratic leader the way we had, we would have sent former Presidents Carter and Ford (who was still alive then) to that country to teach those ignorant nonwhites how a democracy is supposed to work. A justice appointed by one candidate's father cast the deciding vote that stopped the recount of a state governed by the same candidate's brother, making that candidate President. Trump wants to be an autocrat, running the country with his family members, but the Bushes have come closer to that dream than any family, even the Kennedys, who in the early sixties had a President, Attorney General, and Senator from Massachusetts. Three of the four conservative justices currently serving on the Court were appointed by the Bush family. The other one is Gorsuch, and we know how he got there.
I also noticed during that attack that the so-called "liberal" mainstream media had helped Bush by declaring him the winner. Of course, the slick conservatives accused the media of being biased toward Gore because they first declared him (accurately) the winner of Florida. But at that point, Gore needed more electoral college votes to become President. Once Bush was declared the winner by the media, he was on the high ground from which he could call his opponent a sore loser. Republicans, unlike Democrats, know how to use the weapons they have been given. What I didn't sufficiently notice was the role played by the tabloid NATIONAL ENQUIRER. I've commented on the use of sexual misconduct to attack powerful black men and mentioned Jesse Jackson as one of the targeted men (See 5/27/18 post), but I didn't figure out (so maybe I should stop throwing shade on other clueless liberals) that the ENQUIRER was working for the conservatives until Bush had been President for approximately two years, and the tabloid was still going after Bill and Hillary Clinton (kind of like the GOP representatives now). Of course, in 2000, the ENQUIRER revealed Jackson's love child "coincidentally" as he was fighting to help the Gore campaign. Jackson was involved partly because GW's brother Jeb had used an early version of the voter suppression strategy to prevent blacks in Florida from voting.
After the 2000 attack, the conservatives no longer saw (if they ever did) the Supreme Court as apolitical. That is why they refused to allow Obama's nominee to have a hearing in 2016. And that is why not only the sleazy Ted Cruz, but the relatively (certainly by GOP standards) saintly John McCain were promising not to allow Hillary's Supreme Court nominees to be seated if (they were thinking "when") she became President. Most shamefully, that is why many establishment Republicans voted for a corrupt, narcissistic, sadistic, sexist, racist sexual assaulter to be President, putting our country and the world at risk. And that is why some Republicans still don't regret their choice. On my short list of candidates, along with the apocalyptic four horsemen--Trump, Pence, Ryan, and McConnell--as well as the horrible GOP representatives on the Oversight and Intelligence committees, for The Worst Man (Devil) In The World is commentator Hugh Hewitt. The pale, smug Hewitt loves to brag about how these relatively young new justices will rule for decades. I guess he doesn't realize that death can come to anyone at any age and during any administration.
When trying to focus our attention on how much racism matters, I've said that we can't fix our democracy until we know what's wrong with it--racism. We also can't fix it until we know what broke it. The Supreme Court attack in 2000 broke our democracy, giving us in 2016 a man who believes in autocracy and a party (maybe two) who believes in apartheid. Suppressing the nonwhite vote obviously hurts our democracy. The nonwhite voters gave us Obama who cleaned up the mess made by the Supreme Court and the white folks' President; now the Supreme Court, the media, and the white folks have given us an insane bigot who at best is Putin's puppet and at worst a traitor, a secret agent. Who is going to clean up his mess? Putin, when he takes over the world?
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