I was Wondering how we got here?
Everyone’s rights are at risk. The overturning of Roe v Wade is just the start. Then several more decision from the SCOTUS that were all over the map… or were they? Is the beginning of or a continuing agenda by the new conservative majority a religious autocracy with a majority of one religious view overriding the Constitution.
Unless “We the People” stop it.
The First Amendment says;
AMENDMENT #1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It now looks like some of the Justices get what “no law respecting an establishment of religion” or the next part; or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; actually means.
There is a fine line, a gray area between the two ideas. That is where most of the courts have made decisions from historically. Most people with any reasonable critical thinking skills would probably understand this gray area. It looks like we have crossed into something like a Theocracy. Half a dozen black robed priests. They say they know what the founding fathers of our nation were thinking at the time of the founding of our republic. A new cult called Original-ism, of Textual-ism. That’s all we need is some more weird ISMS. A cult that has taken over the courts, that were put into power by an oligarchy of unlimited bribery and dark money. With many of the people who are dead set on ending the great experiment that is our constitutional republic. Ending any form of meaningful democratic participation by We the people.
Starting before the time of Richard Nixon there have been many instances of Leadership of the Republican party and the corporations moving towards fascism and now a form of corrupted corporatist fascism in America. Now it is looking as if the Republican party and much of the Supreme Court are owned Lock, Stock, and Barrel by the Corporatists. There was the attempted Coup d’etat by certain capitalists that tried to get the American General Smedley Butler, to overthrow then-President FDR during the great depression.
Our current situation is a result of a long string on abuses and usurpation, interconnected by greed, and or a lust for power by many elected and appointed officials and corporate leadership. This increased since the institution of the now discredited Neoliberal Economic Models. Neoliberalism ideology put the control of legitimate functions of government in the hands of the monopolistic corporations, banks, The Military Industrial complex, drug companies and big pharmaceuticals conglomerates, Agribusiness, Fossil fuel; etc. This made for a vast expansion of corruption inside government. This ideology allowed a massive concentration of wealth beyond even the fortunes of the Robber Barron era.
The current Problem with an unbalanced Supreme Court really began with the Nixon Administration, and what President Johnson called Treason, that put Nixon in the White House.
Nixon’s people around the now infamous CREEP and others, interfered with the Peace Deal that was being negotiated by the President Johnson administration with the Vietnam Leadership, to delay the end of the war. Conspiring with a foreign power to help win the election. The beginning of a long pattern of conspiring with a foreign power to win the Presidency of the US government. Totally ignoring the US Constitution and the important and legitimate functions of the US government and its laws.
This gave us the seed change in the Supreme Court, that began with Justice Powell being appointed by Nixon, and an attack on unions and the working class. Author of the Powell Memorandum, and who was a corporate lawyer for the US. Chamber of Commerce. In brief, the Powell Memo called for the Corporations to start funding and influencing elections to benefit candidates that were favorable to corporate interests, and to counter the influence of the labor unions. This put on steroids the greed, and deregulation of corporations that are now considered persons by Supreme Court Decisions, contrary to any kind of common sense or historical understanding. Corporations are not persons and Money is not Speech. This became the foundation of the recent notion that corporations main duty is to their share holders and not the common good of the community or society as a whole.
Near the end of the 1970s, the Islamic Revolution started in Iran. The Shah of Iran, who was widely perceived as a tyrant and American Puppet or western asset, was overthrown while out of the country. A number of Americans were taken hostage and held. The Carter Administration was negotiating for their release. There were allegations that the Reagan Champaign made a deal to delay the release of hostages until after the election, having the Iranian government keep the American hostages until the election was over. The hostages were released within minuets of the inauguration of Reagan. Then the October Surprise allegations went public.
Then there was the Ronald Reagan -Bush Administration and Iran-Contra.
Trading weapons, running drugs and guns to the Contras in Central America, and weapons to Iran. Bush the elder was already party to the Treason with Iran that made him Vice President. After eight years of Reagan, George H. W. Bush became president. Then pardons were handed out by the Bush administration, while the investigations were still ongoing.
George H. W. Bush appointed two Supreme Court Justices. One of them, Clarence Thomas is still on the court writing decisions like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that look to be very bad for the future of constitutional, or other freedoms in America. This decision by SCOTUS must be at least considered, at least in part a violation of the cruel and unusual clause of the #8th Amendment. Thomas is still considered the most Conservative on the court.
When Thomas was confirmed by the senate, he spoke of Natural Law. According to natural law theory, all people have inherent rights, conferred not by act of legislation but by the laws of nature and natures god, or by reason and common sense. Where has this notion gone in the reasoning of Justice Thomas, or any of the so called conservatives on the high court?
Can now the state control women, and strip them of control of their own bodies? Put them in prison for having a miscarriage? Have health care denied to them, and abortion, or birth control if they have been raped?
The beginning of blending church and state with evangelical support during the Reagan time moved the non-separation of church and state, into common acceptance by the right wing political actors.
Coming next; The Supremes steal the Presidential election.
Bush V. Gore.
