CT Blue

To no one’s great surprise,the Supreme Court has rejected the ridiculous suit in which some 17 Republican Attorney Generals, 120 plus Republican Congressmembers, and two fictitious states sought to cast aside the votes of millions of Americans. Contradictions were rife, including the fact that they sought a ruling that voting procedures should be declared unconstitutional only in those states Trump lost, while the same procedures in states he won were just fine, not to mention that many of the Congressmembers in question were arguing, sub silentio, that their own elections were illegal.

The court lost no time in throwing the case out, with only Thomas and Alito arguing on jurisdictional grounds they should have heard the case before throwing it out.

Why did the most partisan Supreme Court in history make such short work of this legal bullshit, many might ask.

Here’s my take.

None of the actors here have any particular love for the very stable genius. He was, however, a useful tool for them to get a lot of what they’ve been wanting to achieve over the course of the last 50 years or so, but he’s also been inconvenient in a lot of ways, so they’re not that sorry to see the back of him. But they have differing political problems.

One might think that at least the judges that the genius appointed would feel some sense of obligation to him, but step back a bit. He never cared who he put on the court, just like he never really ever cared about any policies that did not directly affect him. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett don’t owe their appointments to him, nor do the other judges he “named” to the lower courts owe him anything. They owe their appointments to the Federalist Society, and they will, until they leave the court in their coffins, rule consistent with the interests of the folks who run and fund that organization. They are perfectly willing to dismember our democracy, but as the wicked witch said about killing Dorothy, it must be done “slowly” and imperceptibly to the average American. A coup simply won’t do. They have lifetime appointments, so they don’t need to get re-elected.

The Attorneys General and the Congressmembers, on the other hand, have to deal with a monster their party has created: those who vote for them, who have become thoroughgoing fascists and who see the genius as their Supreme Leader. As the very stupid Ron Johnson pointed out in a moment of excessive candor, the Republicans need their votes. It is no longer the case that they can simply reap those votes and then deliver for the rich, they must also throw heaping helpings of red meat. They all, except perhaps the leader of the fictitious states, knew this was going nowhere, but it’s a way to keep the base red hot and in their corner, so they’ll do it.

This may be the last time that we avoid the complete destruction of the republic at the hands of the right. Things have now gotten to the point where they can’t whip up the base and then expect them to vote for a Mitt Romney. The base will insist that they renominate Trump or a similar whackjob. That means they will have an ever more difficult time garnering a majority of popular votes, or even electoral votes, so they will have to resort to the equivalent of gerrymandering the presidential election. There are a number of ways to do this. They could simply pass a law in already gerrymandered legislatures doing away with the popular vote in their state. This is perfectly constitutional. They could, alternatively, assign electoral votes like Maine and Nebraska do, by gerrymandered congressional districts, so that, in Pennsylvania, for instance, a 100,000 vote popular margin for the Democrat would translate into a majority of Republican electors. This is something that Pennsylvania Republicans were considering doing a few years ago. They didn’t, but if they can get a Republican governor, they may reconsider. And, of course, there’s always more sophisticated voter suppression, which the Supreme Court will facilitate. The coup, when it happens, will be far more subtle than what the genius is asking the court to grant him now.

It’s extremely hard to see how we can claw back our democracy, given the constitutional system under which we live. A small minority can frustrate any attempt to amend the constitution to correct its ever more obvious flaws. The Senate is ruled by states well stocked with whackos, which states contain a small percentage of the actual people in this country. The Republican Party has proven adept at manipulating these people and even though they have, to a certain extent, evaded the party’s complete control, they have still enabled the Republican Party to achieve most of its policy goals. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, shows no interest in sticking up for its base, or for delivering real benefits to those upon whom it relies for its votes. As the Republican Party moves ever farther to the right, the Democrats constantly adjust to the new “center” and please no one. When people like AOC come along, people who could actually energize the Democratic base and are capable of giving as good as they get, the Democrats instinctively try to marginalize them. The Democrats have been in a defensive crouch since 1972, and you can’t score decisive victories that way.

We are headed toward a state in which the forms of democracy will be maintained, at least for a while. There will be elected non-Republicans, but they will remain powerless and we will in actuality be a one party state. I hope I’m wrong, but the events of the last few weeks, though they won’t keep Trump in office, have demonstrated where we’re heading.