In coming years, historians and political scientists will mark the week of June 19, 2022 as beyond significant.
The week opened nicely enough with the Juneteenth celebration of slavery’s demise. It ended with the “originalist” Supreme Court both smashing women’s rights and allowing anyone to strap on a gun no matter their mental state or motive. In between, the January 6th Committee exposed the Mad King’s ongoing coup. As the committee continues to demonstrate, Team Trump’s designs are active, and with Ginni Thomas agitating Arizona legislators and pushing her sexual abuser husband Clarence, they have a path to success.
Unless, a shooting Civil War begins.
How does it happen? Both sides have issued calls to arms. Maybe, a desperate Left will refuse to submit to a “rule of law” built on radical Christianity and the 200-year old writings of White Male slaveholders. Maybe, an emboldened Right, will asserts its uncompromising belief in heavily armed White Male Supremacy.
If it goes to either place, this is the point of no return. No hope of common ground. No hope of ethically, respectfully, and truthfully settling differences. Sadly, it’s entirely feasible in a country built upon and sustained through violence.
If the fuse wasn’t sparked this week, then the matches are out of the box. The high court’s actions accelerate the slow motion destruction of American democracy triggered by Trump’s 2016 win and 2020 coup attempt. The Right has the votes. The Right has rigged the judicial system. The Right is poised to force change that’s out-of-step with the majority of Americans. Consider:
From Pew: “Today, a 61% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 37% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.”
From Pew: “Roughly half of Americans (53%) favor stricter gun laws, a decline since 2019,
From AXIOS-Momentive Poll: “The poll…found that 55% of those surveyed believe Biden won the election.”
No matter, Justice Thomas knows better
Justice Thomas sees Roe’s demise as the proverbial camel’s nose in the tent. There are so many other rights for him to roll back. So many scores to settle with people he despises.
“… we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
Justice Clarence Thomas
Gay rights? Out! Need birth control? Nope! Cross state lines for an abortion. You are going to prison!
And Chief Justice John Roberts’ incrementalism is no longer a speed bump for Thomas and his radical buddies.
As Adam Liptak writes in NYT,
“The five other conservatives are impatient and ambitious, and they do not need his vote to achieve their goals. Voting with the court’s three liberals cannot be a particularly appealing alternative for the chief justice, not least because it generally means losing.”
Welcome to minority rule through a majority Right court. Maybe. There are unanswered questions, like:
Going forward, will the Left peacefully submit to minority rule by a Supreme Court created by a twice-impeached president who lost the popular vote?
Going forward, will the Left peacefully submit to two Supreme Court Justices who sit despite credible accusations of sexual misconduct.
Going forward, will the Left peacefully submit to Supreme Court Justices who lied in their Senate confirmation process?
If the answer is “No,” then the fight is on. Arizonans on the Left can expect State 48 to aggressively oppress them from the Right. Arizona has so many architects of the Mad King’s reign, so many who have and will benefit from literally wiping out their political enemies.
Arizona and the New Confederacy
Arizona’s s Team Trumpism was demonstrated yet again when DPS SWAT teams tear gassed Pro Roe demonstrators as they banged on the windows of the State Senate while it was in session.
These same security forces did nothing in 2020 when protestors, advocating the Big Lie and voiding COVID restrictions, occupied the lobby of the AZ Capitol and Executive Tower. Arizona’s Capitol Class has always used a light touch with the Far Right because these are the voters who elect them over and over and over again. The rest, well, they’re the Radical Left who get what they deserve.
Arizona’s ”Republican” Enablers
For now, Governor Doug Ducey remains Far Right Enabler in Chief. Yes, he’s been blacklisted as a “RINO” by Trump supporters for his election certification decision. But two years ago, Ducey was all in on the Trump game, using the Mad King to advance his agenda, and unleashing a Frankenstein. As the saying goes, “Yes, Trump’s an incompetent asshole unfit for the presidency, but he’s my incompetent asshole unfit for the presidency.”
Ice Creamer in Chief Ducey loved the Trump tax cuts, the what’s-good-for-business arrogance, the dismissal of science and education. He mimicked Trump’s COVID ineptitude, dismantling protections for workers and families and the disadvantaged, demonizing the press, othering people of color and LGBTQ, and of course, backing the court packing.
Even as a lame duck, Ducey pushes the Trump Culture Wars as chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, using its PACS to seed divisive campaigns in statehouses nationwide. Given the choice of a Democrat in the state senate instead of disgraced AZ Senator Wendy Rogers and her fringe viewpoints, he stands with Rogers.
For this “true conservative” and other Team Trump enablers (I’m looking at you Mitch McConnell, Evangelical Christians, AG Mark Brnovich, and America’s Conservative Roman Catholics) the bullying buffoon in the White House was their ticket for ending abortion and creating a state religion while dismantling the New Deal, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
And it will continue. Ducey’s pick to succeed him as Governor, Republican Karen Taylor Robinson won’t stand-up to the Mad King’s lies about the 2020 election. Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich so covets Trump’s support in his quest to unseat Senator Mark Kelly, he will do or say anything to please him. When Trump returns to power, these Arizonans will (may?) cringe at his chaos, and then go ahead and give him and his supporters anything they want. Power corrupts absolutely.
And, if the Left doesn’t go along, meet the State 48 Muscle…
…the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, Q-Anon, etc. In their former iterations as Klansmen, Skin Heads, and Aryan Brotherhood they’ve felt at home with Arizona’s racist politics. They’re always at the state capitol rallying for their “rights.” You're certain to see them at left-leaning protests too, kitted out in camo and heavy weapons, Supreme Court approved for “protection” of course.
Don’t you dare call them “domestic terrorists.” Quite a few are legitimately elected representatives to Congress and the Arizona Legislature. Congressman Andy Biggs sought a pardon for his role in January 6.
They can control future elections with Mark Finchem as Secretary of State and Kari Lake as Governor. Nurtured by discredited “Cyber Ninjas,” these defenders of the Big Lie will dox, bully, threaten, intimidate, harass. Hitler used Brownshirts. Mussolini had his Fascist Blackshirts. The Deep South had its KKK. Arizona has these guys.
“Proud Boys, stand by and standby.” I think someone once said that.
And, let’s not forget Kyrsten Sinema…
Queen of the filibuster. Stooge of corporate interests. Heroine of the ineffective compromise. …who could have stopped all of this.
Instead, she told Arizona to “F-Off” via a typically self-absorbed Instagram post.
Kyrsten and her wingman Joe Manchin singlehandedly sunk every effort to build a wall high enough to keep the Mad King and his followers out. Secure Voting Rights? Not on her watch. Build Back Better? Not if it raises taxes on her wealthy masters. Gridlock Breaking Rule Changes? How silly! She has so much more power this way.
And please, don’t for a minute buy her (and Senator Mark Kelly’s) celebration of their timid gun control “compromise.” Any chance of reforming gun policy was crushed by the SCOTUS ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol association v. Bruen.
The victims of Uvalde and Buffalo and the forthcoming mass shootings deserved better. What they got is a NYT article fawning over Sinema's "bipartisanship" and an equally pandering column in the Arizona Republic.
These State 48 Actors are precisely who the January 6th Committee say are the now and future threat to American democracy.
The Mad King’s likely return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue gives them what they want. White Male Supremacy. Guns, guns, and more guns. Special interest money to buy power. Dissolution of an individual’s vote. An Arizona where children won’t learn of state endorsed racism and Manifest Destiny. An Arizona that thinks any woman’s healthcare is its collective business. An Arizona that welcomes any religion as long as it’s Christian. An Arizona where the people’s votes can be thrown out for no legitimate reason. An Arizona where cops run wild trampling rights and busting heads.
Unless a shooting Civil War begins. 43% of Americans overall, and 53% of young Americans think it’s likely.
Armed militias have formed. Left and Right media are in a feeding frenzy. The intensity of protests is growing. Roe may be this century’s Dred Scott. America may be right there, right back in 1861.
Arizona already is. State 48 Welcomes You to the New Confederacy