Remember when Donald Trump actually got the COVID vaccines manufactured and available in large quantities with his Operation Warp Speed initiative? A triumph. And then, instead of getting shots into the arms of the Americans who desperately wanted to be immunized against this horrific killer, instead of deploying federal personnel (the military?) to deploy the vaccine, the President shrugged his shoulders and pointed to state governments, many with coffers seriously depleted from COVID shutdowns that had cut off vital state tax revenues. "The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer. Get moving!" said Trump. There was no plan to administer the vaccines, it seems. The roll-out was lethargic, uncoordinated and effectively left for the Biden administration to figure out.
We have witnessed a Trump reconfigured Supreme Court that is deeply hostile to what right-wingers have called the “administrative state,” and what conspiracy theorists generically refer to as the “deep state,” a federal bureaucracy that purportedly subverts the genuine will of the people. Conveniently, the genuine “will of the people” somehow always revolves around the beliefs of a rather distinct minority of right-wing extremists. Based on two US Senators per state, large or small, we already know that the Constitution already tilts heavily in favor of rural vs urban regions of the country. This harsh fact was born in our Founding Fathers’ deep mistrust of city-slickers (concentrations of population) and an elevation of the salt-of-the-earth farmers and farm owners. In 1789, when the Bill of Rights was passed, the nation was 94% agricultural.
Indeed, if you want guide posts on how to evaluate the likely outcome of any case appearing before the Trump reconfigured 6-3 radical right-wing Supreme Court, there are three overriding principles that the Court tries to justify even if that requires a material distortion of the Constitution and tossing out prior rulings that conflict: evangelical values, the policies of the National Rifle Association (enjoying the results of their intensive and well-paid lobbying, extracting in 2008 a ruling of a basic right of gun ownership after nearly two centuries with no such right recognized) and states’ rights (as exemplified by the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights, noted above).
On June 23rd, cow-towing to the gospel according to the National Rifle Association, the right-wing 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court – in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc vs Bruen, Superintendent Of New York State Police – ruled that New York’s requirement of reasonable justification to secure a concealed weapons permit was unconstitutionally overreaching. Then Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which reversed Roe vs Wade on June 24th with another 6-3 majority, presented an example of the Court’s backing two of those principles: evangelical values and states’ rights. Almost immediately thereafter, that same 6-3 right-wing majority made it very clear, in West Virginia vs Environmental Protection Agency, that Congress needed to make a much better statutory case to empower the federal government to allow an administrative agency to govern fossil fuel emissions within any state. A states’ rights case on steroids. Days later, evangelical values usurped the Constitution’s separation of church and state (First Amendment). In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, that 6-3 radical right-wing majority held that a public school district could not discipline a high school coach who held Christian prayer circles on the 50-yardline after games.
Then on June 30th, the Supreme Court brought back for re-hearing, for the fall term, a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling in Moore vs Harper, that the North Carolina legislature could not replace a redistricting map prepared by a voter-mandated independent commission. The legislature claimed it alone had that right. OMG, this could set the stage for incumbent legislatures to ensure a huge political advantage against their opponents. If the right-wing court indeed reversed the NC Supreme Court, who needs elections anymore? States’ “rights” beyond steroids. Severely gerrymandered districts could easily negate a majority vote. Perhaps, legislatures might even have the right to replace electors if they did not like the voter outcome in a presidential race. Where have we seen that tried before?
As pointed out by both David Lieb of the Associated Press and David Oliver (in Oliver’s Daily 202 for the July 5th Washington Post), gerrymandering has achieved such extreme levels in the United States that, “In some cases, a party can win every statewide race and still never capture the legislature. Much as with the electoral college, the majority does not rule… In 2018, Democrats won every major statewide office [in Wisconsin], including governor and attorney general, races where gerrymandering isn’t in play. But they have not been able to overcome heavily gerrymandered state legislative districts since Republicans won control of the statehouse during the midterm elections in 2010…
“‘Republicans drew Michigan legislative districts after the 2010 census and created such a sizable advantage for their party that it may have helped the GOP maintain control of the closely divided House, according to an Associated Press analysis. As in Wisconsin, Democrats in Michigan won the governor’s race and every other major statewide office in 2018 but could not overcome legislative districts tilted toward Republicans.’” Post-writer Robert Barnes, examining the issues in Moore vs Harper, warns that the 6-3 majority Supreme Court “will consider what would be a fundamental change in the way federal elections are conducted, giving state legislatures sole authority to set the rules for contests even if their actions violated state constitutions and resulted in extreme partisan gerrymandering for congressional seats.” Id. To visualize how effective gerrymandering can be, please visit my July 5th blog, Could this Be the United States Too?
With 74% of the newly configured Court’s decisions tracking radical, right-wing beliefs, you can be sure that evangelical and NRA values along with a notion of states’ having greater power than the federal government on domestic regulatory matters, will be determinative for many, many years to come. After all, the new Trump political justices have decades left in their lifetime appointments. This retrograde, anti-modern approach, denying climate change, religious neutrality and the explosion of criminal homicides from the unleashed proliferation of guns, is all directly attributable to a rogue Supreme Court, a de facto legislature with no checks and balances. This notion of political distortion, a feeling of total helplessness from now voiceless Democrats, has also resulted in a reluctance to try to change the nation… by voting
I’m Peter Dekom, and if anyone tells you that the United States is a representative democracy, please set them straight… and please vote!
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