Top Issue for 2012 Election: The Historically Reactionary, Right-Wing Activist Supreme Court

by: lowkell

Sat Mar 31, 2012 at 10:51:02 AM EDT

Also remember, even before Roberts and Alito joined the Court, it was already solidly conservative (aka, "right wing," as these people are NOT traditional conservatives in almost any sense; more like Republican political hacks), as you can see from Nate Silver's chart, and also considering egregiously right-wing partisan rulings like Bush v. Gore. Since 2005, it's only gotten worse (note: imagine how much better off we'd be if Al Gore had become president in 2001, not George W. Bush?!?), with the horrendous, Democracy-destroying Citizens United ruling, and of course the Heller decision on the 2nd Amendment, which Justice John Paul Stevens correctly said overturned longstanding precedent and "bestowed a dramatic upheaval in the law."

This past week, we saw the Tea Party Supreme Court apparently "ready to engage in some despicable judicial activism on ObamaCare," with far-reaching implications for the country - and the Court itself - if it engages in such an extreme degree of right-wing judicial overreach (in this case, ironically, they'd be overturning a core conservative idea, the "individual mandate," which "is considered to have originated in 1989 at the conservative Heritage Foundation," and which was included in Republican health care bills in 1993, 2007, and of course in "Romneycare"). It's beyond "ridiculous" into "utter travesty" territory.

The truly scary thing is, we don't need to refer to science fiction dystopias to imagine what life in America would be like under a court with people like this in the majority for decades.

Let's just make sure this never happens. You can start right now by: a) volunteering for Barack Obama's reelection; b) donating to Barack Obama's reelection; c) doing the same for Tim Kaine; d) supporting Democrats and progressives at every level - local, state, Congress, you name it; and e) joining with other progressives to form a powerful movement that the right-wing radicals can't stop, then pushing to move this country in strongly progressive direction (e.g., universal health care, a clean energy economy, equal rights for all, an open and honest government).

Come to think of it, you know how Republicans like to talk about how this is the most important election in our lifetimes? Well, they may very well be right, but (of course) not for the right reasons (as usual, they get everything 180-degrees backwards/wrong). The fact is, when it comes to possibility of the Supreme Court tipping even further to the far-right than it already is, that's a real possibility if Barack Obama is defeated and if the U.S. Senate flips to Republican control. This November, let's make damn well sure that doesn't happen!