July 4, 2018
Page 13
O PINION
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A Right Wing Undemocratic Mess
Recall how this
majority came to be
P eter C erto
The Supreme Court is
a real piece of work. Over
the last week it’s been pop-
ping off far-right proclama-
tions like a drunk uncle at
Thanksgiving. Except this
uncle gets to make the rules
in your house, and he can stay there until he dies.
Over about 48 hours, the nation’s highest
court gutted the ability of America’s public
employee unions to fundraise. It ruled that a
president can freely apply his well-document-
ed anti-Muslim bigotry to U.S. immigration
policy, as long as he says that’s not what he’s
doing. And it upheld deeply gerrymandered
congressional maps in North Carolina and
Texas, which lower courts ruled were blatant-
ly designed to make the votes of poor people
and people of color count for less.
These decisions weren’t without their dis-
senters — Justice Sonia Sotomayor in par-
ticular delivered fiery rebukes to the Muslim
ban and gerrymandering decisions. But each
one was decided by a rigid 5-4 vote, with the
court’s right-wing majority carrying the day.
Please recall how this majority came to be.
When the last court seat opened up in ear-
ly 2016, President Obama appointed the bor-
ingly centrist judge Merrick Garland. But the
by
GOP-controlled Senate refused to seat him, or
even to hold a single hearing. This was an al-
most unprecedented obstruction.
Instead, they held the seat open till they had
a Republican president, who appointed the
hardline conservative Neil Gorsuch.
Senate Republicans then changed the
chamber’s rules so Gorsuch could be seated
without the votes needed to clear a filibuster.
That gave them the fifth vote they needed to
disenfranchise voters, gut unions, religiously
discriminate, and god knows what else.
And it’s more maddening than even that.
According to Think Progress, the senators
who opposed Gorsuch represented 53 percent
of Americans, but our arcane constitution gives
much greater weight to less populous (and more
conservative) states. And, remember, Gorsuch
was appointed by a president who got nearly 3
million fewer votes than his opponent, but won
thanks to the same lopsided malapportionment
that also gives us the Electoral College.
Gorsuch, appointed by a minority president
and confirmed by representatives of a minori-
ty of Americans, now gets to slur offensive
proclamations at our tables for life. A similar
pattern seems likely to play out following the
retirement of justice Anthony Kennedy, for
whom the president will no-doubt name a
hard-right successor.
The malapportionment will only get worse
as progressive voters — and an ever larger
share of the U.S. population — cluster in the
bigger states underrepresented by our system.
Meanwhile, lawmakers will continue draw-
ing maps amplifying their own advantage and
passing laws suppressing the votes of every-
one else, with the likely backing of a Supreme
Court even more conservative than it is now.
Under these conditions, electoral politics
can seem hopeless. But they don’t have to be.
For instance, organizers in Arkansas, Mich-
igan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Utah are push-
ing ballot initiatives to put map drawing in
non-partisan hands. Similar measures have
already succeeded in California and Arizona.
Others are being considered by lawmakers in
states like Ohio, where voters overwhelming-
ly backed a requirement to get bipartisan buy-
in on any new maps.
Grassroots mobilizations like the Poor
People’s Campaign, meanwhile, are looking
into mass voter registration drives as one way
to push back against voter suppression. And
election results like socialist Alexandria Oc-
asio-Cortez’s stunning primary victory over
veteran establishment Democrat Joe Crowley
point to a vibrant battle of ideas that defies our
sclerotic voting system.
Can movements like these swing more
elections? Maybe — it’s a steep climb. But
more importantly, they’re building a strong
base of Americans who aren’t going to put up
with a system that leaves their drunk uncle to
hold court forever.
Peter Certo is the editor of OtherWords and
the editor of Foreign Policy In Focus. Distrib-
uted by OtherWords.org
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