The Daily Escape:
Street Art, Riverview Station, Asheville, NC – July 1, 2022 iPhone photo by Wrongo
What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom “to” and freedom “from” –Marilyn Vos Savant
Our stay in North Carolina has been grand, and it’s nearing an end since today is our grandson Conor’s wedding. We will soon head north, spending July 4 at Monticello, Jefferson’s home. The anniversary of our independence is also the day that Jefferson died. In a coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1826. That was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration. We’re really looking forward to spending Independence Day on Jefferson’s turf.
Wrongo has mentioned “The Cause, The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783” a book by Joseph Ellis about how the founders had to create a blurry vision of the revolution because colonists didn’t think of themselves as Americans. They had suspicions of others in different colonies, and they had different economic goals. So the founders described their fight for independence as “The Cause”, an ambiguous term that covered diverse ideas and multiple viewpoints. It succeeded in unifying them against the British.
Now, 246 years after our revolution started, it seems that nothing will ever unite us again. Facts are fungible, so the truth is as well. Most Americans are apathetic when it comes to politics because they like what they’ve got, and they’re unwilling to sacrifice.
This has led us to lose control of our politics and our courts. Control is now held by a minority, mostly by those at the top, supported by some of the people in the middle, and enabled by the apathy of most of the rest of us.
Worse, those in the minority are extremists. They have exploited the seams and imperfections in our system to impose a return to the social mores and politics of an earlier time on the rest of us. The best example of this is the string of far-Right decisions handed down recently by the Supreme (Extreme) Court. From Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern:
“Consider the issues that SCOTUS has resolved this term—the first full term with a 6–3 conservative supermajority. The constitutional right to abortion: gone. States’ ability to limit guns in public: gone. Tribal sovereignty against state intrusion: gone. Effective constraints around separation of church and state: gone. The bar on prayer in public schools: gone. Effective enforcement of Miranda warnings: gone. The ability to sue violent border agents: gone. The Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases at power plants: gone. Vast areas of the law, established over the course of decades, washed away by a court over a few months.”
In a single term, the Extreme Court’s reactionary majority has overturned two centuries of precedent for the American social order. They have made a mockery of judicial restraint. From Robert Hubbell:
“It is no longer “calling balls and strikes” but is…converting the game of baseball into the new sport of Calvinball, in which players make up the rules as they go along. To say the least, these changes are partisan and revolutionary.”
It’s clear that they want to go still further, and given today’s politics, there’s zero risk of the other branches of government overriding their decisions.
So, on this Saturday of Fourth of July weekend, let’s hit pause for a few days before taking on the mid-term roller coaster we’ll experience in the second half of the year. Let’s take these extra days to reflect on the Extreme Court’s rulings. Let’s contemplate how our founders were able to weave a message that united many factions against a common enemy.
It’s very clear that at this point, our common enemy is the partisan power of a partisan minority.
This weekend is our opportunity to set a battle plan against that common enemy, meaning a plan to maintain control of Congress for the next two years. We can then use that power to dilute the power of a reactionary Court that has taken control of many of the duties of the other branches of government.
Real power in this country no longer lies in the People. It resides at the Supreme Court.
To help you reflect on how we take back control, let’s listen to 1963’s “Give Me Your Tired” by Irving Berlin, performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Berlin set music to the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. It comes from his 1949 Broadway musical Miss Liberty:
The words are by Emma Lazarus (1849-87) from her 1883 poem The New Colossus:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
