The Stakes Just Got Higher

Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death is a great loss to lovers of a liberal interpretation of freedom and individual rights of expression and choice. But there are others who may be slightly sad but are mostly quite pleased with the possibility of creating a six to three conservative majority on the US Supreme Court.

Personally, I am most upset by Mitch McConnell’s immediate assertion that he would use his position as Majority Leader to ensure that the Senate confirms any candidate that Trump proposes before the November elections. The is the same Mitch McConnell who held up the appointment of a Supreme Court justice for a year and a half at the end of Obama’s presidency under the rationale that ‘the people’s voice’ should be heard through the elections before a new justice is appointed. Now he has decided that it should be different.

I don’t expect our politicians to be saints, but I had thought that there was some decency, fairness and commitment to the system of checks and balances—some adherence to underlying shared assumptions. With the Trump/McConnell Republicans, this seems to have totally vanished. Is Trump’s self-dealing and fear-mongering just the logical extension of the party of Nixon, Reagan, Cheney and McConnell?

I am so reluctant to label them bad and self-serving while asserting the goodness of my side. Yet when Attorney General Barr compares stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of COVID-19 to slavery, I can’t find any other explanation except willful blindness and a willingness to do whatever it takes to stay in power.

Are we all as blind as that? Are we all simply opportunists who cloak our self-interest in whatever convenient rationale is available at the moment? Of course we are all subject to our human limitations, none of us are perfectly congruent with our actions and our words. But we can and should act with integrity and honesty against those who actively spread rumors and lies to maintain their power and position. We should use whatever power we have to stop or limit forces of oppression, division and destruction.

Sometimes there are not two equal sides. Worshipping the gods of self-interest and privilege for a few is both morally wrong and ultimately self-defeating. As Dr. King said, we are all ‘caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.’ Those who willfully ignore our interdependence tear at the fabric of our future and should be actively opposed.

I don’t yet know exactly what this means for me. I feel the urgency and momentousness of these next few months. The death of this champion of liberty, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and the opening on the Supreme Court has pushed the stakes of this moment even higher than they already were. How do we oppose bigotry and stand for justice and equal rights? How do we add our voices and our energies to tip the balance toward restoring and healing this divided country?

P.S. after completing this entry, I found the link to Heather Cox Richardson’s wonderful piece on RBG.  One of the comments to Richardson’s piece was the following suggestion: