We were all taught in grade school that there are 3 distinct and equal branches of government, Executive (The White House Administration), Legislative (Congress) and Judicial (The Supreme Court). We were told that just like a three-legged stool, each branch depends on the other to stand in a democracy. Unfortunately, that’s a convenient theory that has now been dismantled. During the Trump years three individuals were selected for the Supreme Court. As per the rules these people were vetted under oath by Congress to determine their qualifications, attitudes and perspectives on key issues of the day. Also unfortunately, these three individuals lied under oath regarding their perspectives and failed to offer honest viewpoints. The acid-test has been the recent abortion law changes in Texas and Mississippi. Texas has radically restricted a woman’s rights to abortion and encouraged private citizens to “rat” on any woman who seeks an abortion in a condensed timeline. Mississippi has also reduced abortion opportunities. Both of these laws have been addressed by the “Supreme Court” and rather than hold to the Roe V. Wade precedent— a position all three Trump candidates supported during their Congressional vetting process–they allowed both severely restricting abortion laws to stand. Let’s be clear. We DO NOT support abortion. But, as a matter of democratic necessity, abortion has been the law of the land for nearly 50 years. And nothing has changed to suggest that Roe v. Wade needed any “tweaking”. The overwhelming majority of citizens (read “voters”) support women’s abortion rights as defined by Roe v. Wade. So we have a situation here where three Trump appointed justices happened to turn 180 degrees from their sworn testimony in Congress and support major change to an existing law that seemed to be OK with them just a few months earlier. It is remarkable that both Texas and Mississippi are Republican controlled states. The real issue here is not abortion. This whole discussion is but a dry run for the 2022 and 2024 elections which could end up in the “Supreme Court”. Abortion is the test; addressing questionable voting laws is the real target. Now that the GOP knows how gutless and servile its Supreme Court spies are–it can feel more confident that they will vote Republican whenever asked. Remember that three-legged stool we mentioned earlier; well, it’s not there any more. All we can hope for is that the other justices see the danger of hypocrisy to a democratic structure and judge a case on merit—not on the basis of which political party is favored. Watch for the election battles of 2022 and 2024. They may represent the last free elections for America.
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