Dominos

               

                Now that Brett Kavanaugh is a Supreme Court justice, it may be fair to say that the United States is no longer a functional democracy.  His confirmation by an undemocratic president and an undemocratic senate insured that the tyranny of the minority that has been in place since the Electoral College invalidated the will of people and made Trump president will continue.  It is now total.  The sacred idea of checks and balances and the independence of the three branches of government is now just a cruel joke.  There is no independence and there are no checks and balances.  Our institutions are now controlled by people who do not believe in them and who have no intention of preserving them.  The last domino has fallen.

                The grand illusion of American democracy was that there was something inherently noble in the founding of this nation.  That myth overlooks the fact that the ‘founders’ weren’t very democratically inclined people, except as it referred to them personally.  The Electoral College, the initial restrictions of voting and the election of Senators all point to a system that protected an elite oligarchy and not a broad democratic populous.  Jefferson’s soaring rhetoric may have made it sound like all of us were included, but he certainly never envisioned women or people of color being included.  Hamilton may make a great subject for a musical, but his politics were openly hostile to the common man.  What claim America had to being a beacon of democracy has always come from the people initially excluded in the compact forcing their way in and demanding a voice and a right to participate.  Good luck making that argument in front of the Roberts’ Court.

                The Trump, McConnell, Ryan, Roberts view of government is Calvinist in its orientation and intent.  A small group of chosen elites dictate terms and conditions to the rest of us, all the while stealing everything that isn’t nailed down.  The constitutional ‘purists’ among them will find more and more ways to limit access to justice and participation to those of us of suspect origin and philosophy.  One of their heroes, Scalia, made a career out of claiming to be a strict constructionist while crafting opinions in cases such as Heller and Citizens United that are completely at odds with the historical context of the constitution.  Expect that to continue.  Corporations will have unlimited power while vast swaths of people will be denied the right to even vote.

                The optimistic view is that this can be corrected at the ballot box. Maybe.  Seats on the Supreme Court don’t open up every day.  Maybe people will organize and turn out in numbers sufficient to take control of the House, the Senate and eventually the White House.  Maybe federal prosecutors are going to nail Trump and his family.  Maybe.  Even if that happens, the specter of women cheering Trump as he ridiculed a woman who survived an attempted rape by a privileged punk means that this isn’t going to be pretty.  No mere election will convince people to be inclusive or compassionate.  We don’t just disagree, we hate each other. 

                There’s been a lot of people who have written that this period in our history has made them understand what happened in Germany before WWII.  I get it, but those aren’t the historical comparisons that resonate with me.  I always wondered how America could become so disfunctional that we would descend into a Civil War.  I think I’m starting to understand.  This divide separates not just predictable enemies but friends and family.  Where is the forum that we can use to debate and argue constructively?  What do we agree on that would allow us to heal our differences?  I’m not sure what the possibility of compromise even looks like.

                The other event that the current situation makes me think about is the Reign of Terror, when at the beginning of the French Revolution the rebels carried out mass executions of aristocrats and their sympathizers.  It seemed so brutal and senseless.  Now, I’m not sure that a thousand guillotines at the base of the Washington Monument isn’t inevitable.