Every American who has ever lived through or read about oppression should be terrified by the prospect that Trump will nominate and McConnell will move to confirm a Supreme Court Justice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. May she rest in peace. Our task in this very moment is to raise our voices and our fists in order to prevent the unabashed hypocrisy of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who refused to give Obama’s nominee a hearing in 2016 because he claimed it was too close to a presidential election. In 2016 the election was 300 days away; today it is only 43 days away. If the Court becomes more conservative, the majority will soon experience the oppression of a right wing religious minority. It feels reminiscent of that book and Hulu television drama, “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
However, I’m really not exaggerating by using the word “oppression”. It is a harsh and scary word that means being subject to prolonged cruel and unjust treatment or control. History warns us that the Supreme Court stands between whether Americans are free or oppressed. The Court once decided who is human and who is not fully human, deeming African Americans as “chattel” and only 2/3 human. The Supreme Court decided who was “white” and could therefore be a citizen of this nation, could own businesses, could buy property, get certain jobs, serve on juries, were deserving of justice, and could vote. The Court upheld Jim Crow Laws for 100 years. The Court decided on a woman’s reproductive rights. It decided on the legality of Obamacare that provided health insurance for millions of Americans. It decided on Affirmative Action that literally forced open college doors and occupations previously closed to women and people of color. It decided the fate of same sex marriage. It made George Bush president instead of Al Gore. It was the Court that turned corporations into people. These are only a small fraction of the decisions from the Court that determine our quality of life in this nation.
Another Trump appointee to the Court could literally turn back the clock on women’s rights, minority rights, immigrant rights, same sex couples rights, and a host of other issues near and dear to the majority of Americans. When a religious minority who don’t value science are in control of the Courts, the earth itself is in peril. When religious minorities believe they have the corner on morality and the will of God, then the lives and livelihoods of non-believers and people who believe differently are in peril. I may be a Christian, but I don’t believe in forcing my beliefs down people’s throats.
Beyond physical peril, the education and mindset of the nation is at state. I watched in horror yesterday as Trump blamed history teachers for the unrest in the nation. He proclaimed they teachers should be teaching history with an eye towards recreating patriotism as opposed to exposing some ugly truths about our nation. Imagine a Court that says science teachers must teach creation, history teachers must gloss over negative historical facts, that whiteness is superior, that gender is limited to male and female at birth, and that contraceptive education is banned along with abortion.
Even though I am older and Christian and so I won’t likely personally suffer from the affects of decisions made by an ultra conservative Court, I’m still an empathetic human being who cares about how well young people will be able to live. So, this morning I wrote directly to Mitch McConnell urging him to wait on this nomination hearing like he did in 2016. I participated in a national poll to amplify the voices of we who are in opposition to it. If need be, I will gladly protest against any hearings scheduled for a nominee. I predict that if McConnell confirms a new justice to the Court this year that national unrest will ensue with greater vigor than we’ve seen. And with good reason.
It is time for us to join forces to denounce the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell and to hold Republican senators across this nation accountable for their hypocrisy along with their silence and consent in favor of the most corrupt, morally depraved, and lawless president in history. We will have the leaders and kind of country we are willing to vote for or we will suffer under the tyranny of the few who do the voting.