How the Supreme Court's Assault on Our Lives Might Be Used to Knock Republicans Out of Power

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-supreme-courts-outrageous-assault-our-lives-might-be-used-knock-republicans

Chief Justice John Roberts has played the American public like a hand of cards this week. He rolled out of rulings gutting some of the most important civil rights laws of the past 50 years. But he quickly diverted attention to these assaults by holding back two same-sex marriage rulings until the term’s last day.

Everywhere, from ubiquitous Facebook posts, to cheers and hugs on the Court’s marbled steps, to The New York Times columns a day later, euphoria has surged for the ruling written by Justice Anthony Kennedy holding that the definition of marriage in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. The other ruling, written by Roberts, allowed the marriages to resume in California.

But Kennedy is no civil rights hero. He wrote the 2010 Citizens United ruling that made federal elections even more of an extreme sport for the rich. His DOMA decision was the right thing to do. It wasn’t courageous. Its scope was limited. And despite predictable homophobic barbs aimed at him from Justice Antonin Scalia, Americans—including many progressives—are missing the big picture.

John Roberts is the most political chief justice in recent decades. His strategic release of this week’s decisions—one setting the stage for overturning affirmative action in higher education, two eviscerating workplace harassment standards, and then gutting the most important voting rights law of the past half-century—were all deliberately buried by the timing of the two marriage decisions. These rulings take months to prepare and their release is not random.

[PATRICK]

1. And we are so easily

guided away from the obvious by drinking at the MSM well. First things and obvious things are extremely difficult to focus on even at DU. The defense that everyone else in America is doing it is embarassing. Trying to refocus on what is right and true is rife with board discord and social disconnect.

Goodwill and celebration of progressive victories can create suckers.

A good proto example is Nixon helping affirmative action and school busing for nakedly malicious future political capital. Even vocally liberal Dems were
likely horrified at their success' ramifications.

Mixed bags have mixed results. The good can continue to do good. The bad is also empowered. This is probably the prudent governance that will kill us all.