PUTNEY — The outrageous overreach of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn multiple laws supported by the vast majority of citizens looks like an early shot across the bow in the coming civil war.
This sort of behavior, where the will of the people has no bearing on the Supreme Court majority's decision-making, is the spark that could bring us to war.
Considering the possible interference in daily life that a corrupt organization like the current Supreme Court could, and probably will, create, will states like mine, Vermont, accept these rulings?
The Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell, the most corrupt Senate leader in many decades, have created a court that not only does not represent the United States, but also does not even have the best interests of the vast majority of Americans in its deliberation process.
We can expect to see rulings that run the gamut from overturning marriage equality, to destroying any lingering remnants of the rights of non-white citizens to a fair shot at voting, to overruling the federal government's ability to control greenhouse gasses, to creating barriers to girls' access to sports. The controlling majority of this court has not seen a human right they do not want to restrict.
If you use your imagination and consider all the many ways this dictatorial band of religious, right-wing fanatics can try to restrict our rights to those of people in the 1700s, the list is endless.
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So, what is too far? Some of us believe the Supreme Court has already far exceeded its reach. However, we have seen nothing yet.
What can we do about this? Will states like California, Massachusetts, and Oregon actually accept this remaking of our lives?
Will our states accept paying taxes to a federal government that is actively empowering the oil and gas industries and increasing our fossil fuel outputs? Will our blue states accept curtailing of our rights to contraception?
The overturning of abortion rights and New York's conceal-carry law are just two examples of how this can go. Think about voting rights, women's rights, workers' rights, health care policy, and so many other areas.
The well-funded far right could take any state law to court. Even if every lower court upholds it at every stage, what will happen when the challenge makes its way to the Handmaid's Tale Supreme Court? What do citizens in the state do? How does the state government respond?
What will it take to create enough of a schism that we finally either pull apart or actually face the terrible reality of the civil war that the far right is daily trying to provoke?
We urgently need to have this discussion right now.