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Prior to Barack Obama’s winning the 2008 election to become President, many people in multicultural cities across the country were unaware that the Civil War still hadn’t been completely won. Back then, many believed that racism was a rotting fruit that was withering away.

Some have proposed that President Obama’s election reawakened racism as it represented the ascendancy of minorities and the descent of the concept of white superiority. What it may have done instead is pull back the curtain on the racism that was always there in America and the openly racist attacks that followed gave permission to others to be openly racist (while claiming victimhood when called racist).

Racist quotes by Right Wing politicians have become so commonplace now, they barely raise an eyebrow (even if seen as offensive by many). We have become accustomed to our black President being accused of being born in countries that aren’t considered “white”, shouted down in State of the Union speeches by white politicians, and in general, portrayed as a white-hating, America-hating black man.

Just last year in the 2012 elections, while Republicans in mostly Southern states tried to prevent minorities from voting by passing Voter ID laws, while their candidates vying for office cruelly attacked and denigrated minorities (both citizens and undocumented immigrants), while Southern states passed laws that attacked immigrant minorities and made schooling their children and even giving them a ride in a car crimes…Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was apparently counting the days until he could provide more protection for such people to continue doing so.

With the five Justices (now an ironic title) declaring that racism is no longer a bigger issue in the South than elsewhere in the US and therefore it is unconstitutional to require pre-clearances on racially targeted laws there, the Supreme Court has essentially poured gasoline on the embers of the Civil War and even seems a bit smug about it. Bet those five are disappointed that there’s no end zone in the courtroom for them to do a dance in.

Statistics, passage of laws, even taped conversations of Southern state legislators communally referring to black Americans in their state with nasty, racist terms, none of reality matters to this outrageously activist and ideological court. Instead they cherry picked isolated incidents in non-Southern states to justify the conclusion they already wanted. They simply do not care about the way things are, all they care about is the way they want things to be.

Of course, when all of these five justices went through their Senate hearings, they lied about respecting precedent and not wanting to legislate from the bench. John Roberts in particular made this a centerpiece of his nomination, he portrayed himself as a moderate and one who would respect the decisions of previous Supreme Courts and settled law. This decision only underlines the pattern that his term has reflected, that a man who lied and deceived our representatives under oath continues to lead the highest court in our nation.

Many on the Right were furious at Roberts because he didn’t overstep his legal bounds as hugely in the ACA/Obamacare case and some are now attacking people on the left for approving of his ruling then but criticizing him now for this decision (of course, they are Republicans so their hypocrisy goes unnoticed by them). The truth is that just because someone who is expected to kick a dog one day doesn’t so people feel relief, it doesn’t mean that when he does kick a dog on another day, that people are somehow disqualified from protesting it.

And truly, our laws that protect our voting rights, our privacy, our pursuit of happiness and equality no matter our race, religion, sex, etc., can’t protect themselves. They need a functioning government and society to do so and this two-pronged attack on Americans that these Republican justices are participating in, along with Republican politicians intent on hobbling the functionality of government, is focused on stripping Americans of rights while blocking their attempts at recourse.

Does anyone truly expect the Citizens United ruling by these Republican justices, which handed over the greatest influence in our elections to the super-wealthy (the top 1% of the top 1% contributed more than 25% of all money in the 2012 elections…that’s 31,400 people out of a nation of 314,000,000), to be changed by our Congress? Even though a solid majority wants that to happen?

And did you notice that after that activist, anti-public ruling, Roberts said that Congress could always make changes to the law…just as he’s said in this egregious case? Really, Roberts honestly expects the Republicans in Congress to support Progressive legislation to create “new criteria” to preventing racially oppressive and voter blocking laws by Republicans that are intended to reduce Democratic voter turnout from minorities? Really? This is a cynical and dishonest ploy by Roberts and the four other Injustices, something to use to try and blunt the blame that they deserve for undermining another major support beam of our democracy.

The marriage of the white power structure in the South with greed-obsessed businesspeople has borne such “children”. In both cases, there is the mentality of the elitist, those who believe not only that they are superior because they are white and male but that this also entitles them to all that they want for themselves, especially when it comes to money and power. Many of these types are actually furious when they see money or power in the hands of someone who isn’t white or greedy (unless they are worshipers of the same elitism as Clarence Thomas is), it makes them mad to see non-white and unselfish people with power. Barack Obama’s election and re-election has made that crystal clear.

So, you have these elitist ideologues polluting our SCOTUS and expressing anger at the fact that white politicians in the South were prevented from passing laws that studies and even public statements from Republican politicians affirmed were aimed primarily at blocking blacks and other minorities from voting. Are we to believe that these five justices truly believe that voting fraud at the polls is a serious issue despite all the facts and numbers proving otherwise, and that there is any other purpose to these laws than disenfranchising minority voters from their Constitutional right to vote? They know that the law they have sabotaged blocked laws intended to prevent Americans from using their Constitutional right to vote…and they found that to be unconstitutional?

We’re well aware of the dance they do in their decision statements and all the slim branches of reason they reach for to try and spread over their footprints so they’re less visible but in such an anti-democratic decision, there really is nowhere for them to hide.

The racists have their court to protect and support them because they support the GOP and elitism. The corporations have their court to enrich and empower them because they support the GOP and elitism. It will take time and good fortune in upcoming Presidential elections if our Supreme Court is ever to once again represent the interests of the majority in this nation.

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Nirek
Member

Adlib, maybe along with of a minimum wage we need a maximum wage.

SallyT
Member

The times they are a changin’. There will come a time when the whites will be out numbered. They better hope that those they have discriminated against are better at forgetting than those that lost the Civil War or need a fence to protect the border. The Republicans can not win with only the white vote. Don’t think those in Congress don’t know that. Sure they can play games with their redistricting and such but they are going to need some people of color to win the White House again. All the Supreme Court has done is lite a fire under those same people that stood in line for hours in the last election to do it again. There is time to help those that need ID’s, as CL suggested, before 2014.
And, as I said somewhere else today to those in TX that jumped with glee with this ruling. I can’t wait for those people of color to over take the whites in TX and impose voting restrictions against the whites that they can’t vote until they have mowed the lawns of those they discriminated against back when. Pay backs can be a bitch.

AdLib, great article as usual.

SueInCa
Member

Right to the point Adlib. I was perusing Theocracy Watch and I found this quote from Chip Berlet:

Today’s hard right seeks total dominion. It’s packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself.

D James Kennedy of Coral Ridge fame once said, “all we really need is majority on the supreme court, the rest is just icing on the cake” (paraphrasing a bit) and I guess he was right. I want to know why no Republicans are ever assassinated? At least not since Lincoln. Not that I want them killed, I just find it very peculiar. I have for years now. Their hate of anything not “anglo-saxon” is palpable even though they are not anglo saxon either. I just shake my head all day long.

MurphTheSurf3
Editor

Hey Ad Lib…I submitted an article as well….more matter of fact than your very carefully dissection of the decision and of these justices, but just as passionate.

I am not at all surprised by the results. I have followed Roberts history since his service in the Reagan Administration and the George H. W. Bush administration in the Department of Justice and the Office of the White House Counsel. In both he was a strong critic of the VRA. Now he has the prize he has been reaching to grasp for such a long time. Shame on him and shame on his four fellow justices.

I do not know if any of these Justices are racists….I actually wonder about Thomas in that regard, oddly enough….

But what I do know is that their ruling today will provide fodder for the racists who have now moved in five states to impose new measures on voting immediately…..will hoods and burning crosses follow on?

Angry, you bet.

HP has the largest number of comments on one story since election night and the emotion can be cut with a knife.

choicelady
Member

OK all – let me weigh in here with a bit of hope.

One thing the states instantly deciding to impose ID and other laws upon voting have missed was the EARLIER decision that, well, they can’t. In the hoopla today they think they won – they did not, and the 8-0 ruling in favor of the federal voting laws that trump state wackadoodle will put paid to a lot of this crap.

The VRA is NOT dead. What it has done is made enforcement a heavier lift. It will be perfectly OK for anyone to prefer suits and charges against any Good ol’ Boys ANYWHERE such as, oh, Kacich? The DOJ can and will act at that point. Section 4 made it vastly easier to monitor places such as Shelby AL – but maybe these are NOT the only places needing oversight?

I agree with Melissa Harris Perry that the vastly better way to go would be expanding inclusion of assholes rather than the exclusion of everyone on the presumption they suddenly are choir boys. But even as they sent the oversight list back for Congressional review, they did NOT – did NOT – gut the act itself. That’s important for us to keep hold of. Reporting jerks trying to restrict voting is the new activism of the new Freedom Riders. The DOJ does NOT have to have Congress give them a blanket groups to review – it does need all of us to be eyes and ears.

It’s heavier lifting. No doubt about it. But it is NOT over, VRA is NOT dead, and we CAN make this work. The critical issue however is that what Congress we elect in 2014 and onward depends on all of us not throwing up our hands and deciding we cannot vote.

The ONLY way we take back democracy is voting. There is no excuse for anyone not voting. NO EXCUSE. In the meantime – if you live where voter ID is now being demanded – get in your car and help someone who needs it get it. Pay for it if you must. And then drive that person to the polls next election. No use ever saying we can’t thwart the SOBs. We have. We can. We will. We must.

MurphTheSurf3
Editor

Nice balance. I agree with much of what you have to say here. Let me add that this decision is another one of those that makes it clear how opposed the GOP is to so many of our fellow citizens’ needs and agenda. I saw an interview this afternoon with a very well spoken, clearly well educated, affluent young businessman (30’s) who is also black. I wrote down this quote from the interview: “It is becoming clearer and clearer to me and to my friends that while the GOP holds to policies that I might like from an economic point of view, it also supports a series of beliefs and measures that work against other equally important interests. Today is just another example that the GOP wants us on their terms and they are losing that battle every day.”

Parsifals
Member
Parsifals

As always a good one, AdLib. One of the factors that always has me shaking my head (or worse) is the fact that the President, as an inter-racial man, referred to as “black” is unable or perhaps unwilling to address the issues that surround this nation’s growing racism, a racism that never died, but appears to be ready to explode in all our faces.

Thanks.

Sabreen60
Member
Sabreen60

AdLib, All I can say right now is that I am so pissed I can’t see straight. When I become somewhat sane again, I hope to comment further.