Oct 5, 2022·edited Oct 5, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
"One of the anchors for my optimism is that America is on a path to becoming more urban, educated, and diverse—and there is nothing Republicans can do about that fact. I do not raise this point to say that Democrats can rely on demographics to defeat MAGA extremism. Instead, I raise it to say that the increasing urbanization, education, and diversity of America will make it more difficult for white conservative legislatures to maintain their power through racial gerrymandering. At some point, the math simply won’t support the maintenance of majority-white congressional districts."
Oh but they will! Given the nature of political organization in America, where 44milion Californians have the same number of senators as 750,000 citizens of Wyoming do, the "increasing urbanization" will have the "educated and diverse Americans" in fewer and fewer bigger and bigger places, while those who remain back in Flyoverville will have an easier and easier time electing the anti-urban reactionaries they want.
You might want to go read some English history on the Rotten Boroughs and the (literal) battle to get to the Reform Act of 1832. Look up "Peterloo." It literally took a second English Revolution to make that change.
Unfortunately, given the rigidity of our political organization through the Consititution, the only way we could accomplish something similar would be through an Article V Convention, which is fraught with even more danger than things remaining as they are, since the organization of that will give a state of 750,000 the same number of votes to change the constitution as a state of 44million.
"...as the reactionary majority pivots to fact-free and precedent-free jurisprudence, Justice Jackson’s style is necessary to expose the hypocrisy and cynicism of justices who seem more interested in spouting misleading soundbites than upholding the rule of law."
When all is said and done, the reason the GOP is acting the way it is is quite simple--disgusting but simple. Demographics are against them, and they cannot survive as a party that wins elections because the electorate is shifting big time. They realize that the only way they can hold on to power is to keep people entitled to vote from voting. It really all boils down to that. And, since, for a long time now, they have had no scruples and no interest in respecting our system unless it keeps them in wealth and power, they will let the worst among them set the standard. They are just that desperate. I remain hopeful about turning this around, but it will take time and persistence, and living through this process is HELL.
Thank you, Robert, for the breadth of your commentary. Two points:
- First, as you note, In Steve Vladek's Twitter-feed analysis provides a good analysis of the merits of Trumps petition to the high court. What stands out to me his second takeaway from the filing (see #11 in his Twitter feed):
"This is what good lawyers do who are stuck due to appease bad clients: the jurisdictional argument is narrow, technical, and non-frivolous. It's a way of filing *something* in the Supreme Court without going all the way to crazy town and or acting unethically."
- Second, Kate Riga, in her analysis of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's commentary, demonstrates that this woman is more than willing and capable to write opinions that will completely refute the radical majority's misappropriation and malevolent use of Originalism to underpin their political radicalization (white, Christian) of the Constitution. Ms. Riga cites the following commentary by Judge Brown Jackson:
"[T]he framers themselves adopted the equal protection clause, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment in a race-conscious way. . . I looked at the report that was submitted by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction which drafted the 14th Amendment, and that report says that the entire point of the amendment was to secure rights of the freed former slaves."
Quoting from the legislator who introduced the 14th Amendment, Judge Brown Jackson goes on to note that the constitutional foundation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was "designed to make people who had less opportunity and less rights equal to white citizens."
I can hear the air whistling out of Judge Thomas', Alito's and Gorsuch's balloon.
As you deftly noted yesterday and quoting from the legislator who introduced the amendment, Judge Brown Jackson is providing the fundamental legal bases that will guide a rebalanced Court to overturn the ungrounded and malicious decisions of the radical six Supreme Court justices. Not taking away anything away from Judges Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, Judge Brown Jackson is exactly the justice we need on the Court at this time. Kudos to Joe Biden and those who recognized Judge Brown Jackson's extraordinary brilliance.
Oct 5, 2022·edited Oct 5, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
"While the absolute number of whites in Alabama has been shrinking, the absolute number of Blacks and Hispanics has been growing.
Here’s my point: It will become nearly impossible for the Alabama legislature to cram enough white voters into six majority-white congressional districts after the 2030 Census."
I spent the summer of 1964 with my Alabama family--mother, aunts, cousins-- having left university after the funds were cut off in response to my involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. It was a summer of unrest across the country and a very bad summer for relations with my family. The small city where they live was tense, like everywhere in the state, white citizens were indignant and frightened, black citizens just beginning to feel a change in the air.
There was tension all over the place. In my mother's apartment building, I met a husband and wife who were there trying to do research for a biography of George Wallace. Their obviously liberal sympathies made them the target of a vicious hostility, and I was forbidden to visit them.
But that was at the beginning and with all the tension and all the anger and all the fear, there was still the underlying hum of great energy and hope.
With hindsight, I can see the slow movement in that one city from the summer of voter registration and death in Mississippi to where we are today, as you typed those words.
The last time I was in my Alabama town was maybe 6-8 years ago and I could hardly stand to be there. It is a town of sorrow. Downtown is shuttered and broken. The streets are empty, the parking lots of strip malls populated by a combination of frightened elderly white women and young black men who seem to be straining to find some rage but are too banged up to muster it.
It is like the blasted landscape of a terrible sci-fi film shot with a video camera on cheap sets. I can't describe the real awfulness.
Alabama failed everybody when they pushed back against the tide of a demand by both blacks and whites for the rights of black citizens. They refused, and they failed, and the mess is there to see. All of the members of my family but one have left, have fled at least as far as Mobile and the more diverse culture of the Gulf. I think, if people had the money, darned near everybody would be gone.
Meanwhile, here we are, in the world of 2022, when Alabama is once again pushing--on every front--against life, and--the worst thing of all to me--we are once again counting up the poker chips by color. Blacks will vote this way; whites will vote that way.
On some days, your unfailing optimism is what allows me to see a little light at the end of whatever the current tunnel might be. On other days, Mr. H. your unfailing optimism just ticks me off.
I'm grateful for you on both, counts, sir.
IYour words above, not the center of your post today, have touched my old soul and made me very sad for the moment.
There's a joke that Washington DC is sixty square miles surrounded by reality. Seems like the Supreme Court should be a butt of a similar joke. I do applaud Justice Jackson. Sounds like she is the right person at the right time. Besides her excellent arguments, she is also known to be a consensus builder. So maybe she will at least moderate some of the worse of the reactionaries. For me personally, I've had it with this Court and have no intention of being part of their highly flawed "theocracy". Civil, non-violent disobedience seems in order when they are decimating human rights and the rule of law. We, the People, all of us this time.
We as a nation can't wait until 2030; I sure as hell can't. I know you're not advocating a wait-and-see stance, Robert, as you are always encouraging our positive involvement in the political process. Still, I am disheartened by all the evil that can be done in the years ahead before demographics can make a difference. I will keep plugging along, writing postcards and supporting candidates and marching, because doing nothing is unacceptable.
Thank you….I must add that the people have a certain infatuation with celebrity. That said, even Hershel Walker’s son said the guy is lying, uncaring for the women with whom he had children. Walker is totally unqualified to be a US Senator. I can only hope that the people of Georgia will come out to vote and send Rev. Warnock back to finish the work he started.
We get the government we vote for……it is very scary.
If you have a chance go to YouTube and listen to Judge Jackson as she demonstrates what a real Supreme Court Justice sounds like. We need 4 more like her. The following quote from Dan Pfeiffer sums up in my opinion the challenge we have in the midterms. “ There is a dynamic playing out now. MAGA Republicans who voted against the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and the rest of the Biden agenda are taking credit for projects in their districts. The problem is that most voters — the voters who decide elections — already assume the worst about politicians. Hypocrisy and dishonesty are priced into the baseline. You are not giving them new or actionable information when you point out hypocrisy. Attacking hypocrisy while fun is not the way to win. We need to promote what we will do when elected and how it benefits the voter and discuss what we are for rather than what we are against.
I don’t remember which show on MSNBC I think Nicole Wallace but they showed the migration of Hispanics and Latinos to the Republican Party. I don’t understand why Democrats aren’t doing a better job of helping to understand that overall they are voting against their own best interests . I think this is unfortunate.
Just trying to recall, how did Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, with her brilliant mind, superb communications skills, and positively magnetic personality end up on SCOTUS? Of all the fine candidates, who finally chose her? Oh, could it have been that old guy, the one who’s not a great orator?
Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a former writer and editor for the right-wing media outlet Breitbart, made the position of party leaders clear: “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles,” she said. “I want control of the Senate.”
And this is the current issue I have with the Republican party and those who vote R down the line no matter what. They genuinely don't care about civil rights, America, or having any sense of duty to doing the right thing. The only thing they care about is their team winning, and when push comes to shove, they will always choose an extremist over democracy or what is best for the country. There is no reasoning or arguing in good faith with these folks at times.
Let's see how it plays out! I come from a psych background, with a need to find to identify emotional drivers. These folk are staunch religious nuts (as opposed to spiritual), raised on the lives of the martyrs. They're blinded by their imagined glory doing The Church's holy work. Oh, the delicious ecstasy of the flames licking at my robes!
Sorry, I got carried away. That's my 5 cent Lucy take on the cardinals of the Supreme Court.
You and TC are right that our country is becoming more urban and diverse and statistics support this. I read about this a few years ago. I don’t know the exact timing of when people of color will outnumber white people but I think it might be by 2035 or 2040.
I think this is why the former guy and his cult resort to all the lies and obvious cheating. They’re scared and think that that is the way they will “win” but you can’t argue with math and statistics.
We just have to keep doing what we’re doing to hold them accountable for the lies and cheating. It’s the only way to keep them from ruining our democracy.
"One of the anchors for my optimism is that America is on a path to becoming more urban, educated, and diverse—and there is nothing Republicans can do about that fact. I do not raise this point to say that Democrats can rely on demographics to defeat MAGA extremism. Instead, I raise it to say that the increasing urbanization, education, and diversity of America will make it more difficult for white conservative legislatures to maintain their power through racial gerrymandering. At some point, the math simply won’t support the maintenance of majority-white congressional districts."
Oh but they will! Given the nature of political organization in America, where 44milion Californians have the same number of senators as 750,000 citizens of Wyoming do, the "increasing urbanization" will have the "educated and diverse Americans" in fewer and fewer bigger and bigger places, while those who remain back in Flyoverville will have an easier and easier time electing the anti-urban reactionaries they want.
You might want to go read some English history on the Rotten Boroughs and the (literal) battle to get to the Reform Act of 1832. Look up "Peterloo." It literally took a second English Revolution to make that change.
Unfortunately, given the rigidity of our political organization through the Consititution, the only way we could accomplish something similar would be through an Article V Convention, which is fraught with even more danger than things remaining as they are, since the organization of that will give a state of 750,000 the same number of votes to change the constitution as a state of 44million.
"...as the reactionary majority pivots to fact-free and precedent-free jurisprudence, Justice Jackson’s style is necessary to expose the hypocrisy and cynicism of justices who seem more interested in spouting misleading soundbites than upholding the rule of law."
When all is said and done, the reason the GOP is acting the way it is is quite simple--disgusting but simple. Demographics are against them, and they cannot survive as a party that wins elections because the electorate is shifting big time. They realize that the only way they can hold on to power is to keep people entitled to vote from voting. It really all boils down to that. And, since, for a long time now, they have had no scruples and no interest in respecting our system unless it keeps them in wealth and power, they will let the worst among them set the standard. They are just that desperate. I remain hopeful about turning this around, but it will take time and persistence, and living through this process is HELL.
Thank you, Robert, for the breadth of your commentary. Two points:
- First, as you note, In Steve Vladek's Twitter-feed analysis provides a good analysis of the merits of Trumps petition to the high court. What stands out to me his second takeaway from the filing (see #11 in his Twitter feed):
"This is what good lawyers do who are stuck due to appease bad clients: the jurisdictional argument is narrow, technical, and non-frivolous. It's a way of filing *something* in the Supreme Court without going all the way to crazy town and or acting unethically."
- Second, Kate Riga, in her analysis of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's commentary, demonstrates that this woman is more than willing and capable to write opinions that will completely refute the radical majority's misappropriation and malevolent use of Originalism to underpin their political radicalization (white, Christian) of the Constitution. Ms. Riga cites the following commentary by Judge Brown Jackson:
"[T]he framers themselves adopted the equal protection clause, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment in a race-conscious way. . . I looked at the report that was submitted by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction which drafted the 14th Amendment, and that report says that the entire point of the amendment was to secure rights of the freed former slaves."
Quoting from the legislator who introduced the 14th Amendment, Judge Brown Jackson goes on to note that the constitutional foundation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was "designed to make people who had less opportunity and less rights equal to white citizens."
I can hear the air whistling out of Judge Thomas', Alito's and Gorsuch's balloon.
As you deftly noted yesterday and quoting from the legislator who introduced the amendment, Judge Brown Jackson is providing the fundamental legal bases that will guide a rebalanced Court to overturn the ungrounded and malicious decisions of the radical six Supreme Court justices. Not taking away anything away from Judges Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, Judge Brown Jackson is exactly the justice we need on the Court at this time. Kudos to Joe Biden and those who recognized Judge Brown Jackson's extraordinary brilliance.
"While the absolute number of whites in Alabama has been shrinking, the absolute number of Blacks and Hispanics has been growing.
Here’s my point: It will become nearly impossible for the Alabama legislature to cram enough white voters into six majority-white congressional districts after the 2030 Census."
I spent the summer of 1964 with my Alabama family--mother, aunts, cousins-- having left university after the funds were cut off in response to my involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. It was a summer of unrest across the country and a very bad summer for relations with my family. The small city where they live was tense, like everywhere in the state, white citizens were indignant and frightened, black citizens just beginning to feel a change in the air.
There was tension all over the place. In my mother's apartment building, I met a husband and wife who were there trying to do research for a biography of George Wallace. Their obviously liberal sympathies made them the target of a vicious hostility, and I was forbidden to visit them.
But that was at the beginning and with all the tension and all the anger and all the fear, there was still the underlying hum of great energy and hope.
With hindsight, I can see the slow movement in that one city from the summer of voter registration and death in Mississippi to where we are today, as you typed those words.
The last time I was in my Alabama town was maybe 6-8 years ago and I could hardly stand to be there. It is a town of sorrow. Downtown is shuttered and broken. The streets are empty, the parking lots of strip malls populated by a combination of frightened elderly white women and young black men who seem to be straining to find some rage but are too banged up to muster it.
It is like the blasted landscape of a terrible sci-fi film shot with a video camera on cheap sets. I can't describe the real awfulness.
Alabama failed everybody when they pushed back against the tide of a demand by both blacks and whites for the rights of black citizens. They refused, and they failed, and the mess is there to see. All of the members of my family but one have left, have fled at least as far as Mobile and the more diverse culture of the Gulf. I think, if people had the money, darned near everybody would be gone.
Meanwhile, here we are, in the world of 2022, when Alabama is once again pushing--on every front--against life, and--the worst thing of all to me--we are once again counting up the poker chips by color. Blacks will vote this way; whites will vote that way.
On some days, your unfailing optimism is what allows me to see a little light at the end of whatever the current tunnel might be. On other days, Mr. H. your unfailing optimism just ticks me off.
I'm grateful for you on both, counts, sir.
IYour words above, not the center of your post today, have touched my old soul and made me very sad for the moment.
There's a joke that Washington DC is sixty square miles surrounded by reality. Seems like the Supreme Court should be a butt of a similar joke. I do applaud Justice Jackson. Sounds like she is the right person at the right time. Besides her excellent arguments, she is also known to be a consensus builder. So maybe she will at least moderate some of the worse of the reactionaries. For me personally, I've had it with this Court and have no intention of being part of their highly flawed "theocracy". Civil, non-violent disobedience seems in order when they are decimating human rights and the rule of law. We, the People, all of us this time.
We as a nation can't wait until 2030; I sure as hell can't. I know you're not advocating a wait-and-see stance, Robert, as you are always encouraging our positive involvement in the political process. Still, I am disheartened by all the evil that can be done in the years ahead before demographics can make a difference. I will keep plugging along, writing postcards and supporting candidates and marching, because doing nothing is unacceptable.
Thank you….I must add that the people have a certain infatuation with celebrity. That said, even Hershel Walker’s son said the guy is lying, uncaring for the women with whom he had children. Walker is totally unqualified to be a US Senator. I can only hope that the people of Georgia will come out to vote and send Rev. Warnock back to finish the work he started.
We get the government we vote for……it is very scary.
If you have a chance go to YouTube and listen to Judge Jackson as she demonstrates what a real Supreme Court Justice sounds like. We need 4 more like her. The following quote from Dan Pfeiffer sums up in my opinion the challenge we have in the midterms. “ There is a dynamic playing out now. MAGA Republicans who voted against the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and the rest of the Biden agenda are taking credit for projects in their districts. The problem is that most voters — the voters who decide elections — already assume the worst about politicians. Hypocrisy and dishonesty are priced into the baseline. You are not giving them new or actionable information when you point out hypocrisy. Attacking hypocrisy while fun is not the way to win. We need to promote what we will do when elected and how it benefits the voter and discuss what we are for rather than what we are against.
I don’t remember which show on MSNBC I think Nicole Wallace but they showed the migration of Hispanics and Latinos to the Republican Party. I don’t understand why Democrats aren’t doing a better job of helping to understand that overall they are voting against their own best interests . I think this is unfortunate.
Just trying to recall, how did Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, with her brilliant mind, superb communications skills, and positively magnetic personality end up on SCOTUS? Of all the fine candidates, who finally chose her? Oh, could it have been that old guy, the one who’s not a great orator?
Regarding Herschel Walker...
Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a former writer and editor for the right-wing media outlet Breitbart, made the position of party leaders clear: “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles,” she said. “I want control of the Senate.”
And this is the current issue I have with the Republican party and those who vote R down the line no matter what. They genuinely don't care about civil rights, America, or having any sense of duty to doing the right thing. The only thing they care about is their team winning, and when push comes to shove, they will always choose an extremist over democracy or what is best for the country. There is no reasoning or arguing in good faith with these folks at times.
Great newsletter today, thanks Rob
Let's see how it plays out! I come from a psych background, with a need to find to identify emotional drivers. These folk are staunch religious nuts (as opposed to spiritual), raised on the lives of the martyrs. They're blinded by their imagined glory doing The Church's holy work. Oh, the delicious ecstasy of the flames licking at my robes!
Sorry, I got carried away. That's my 5 cent Lucy take on the cardinals of the Supreme Court.
She's brought an air of respectability...and hope.
Rob,
You and TC are right that our country is becoming more urban and diverse and statistics support this. I read about this a few years ago. I don’t know the exact timing of when people of color will outnumber white people but I think it might be by 2035 or 2040.
I think this is why the former guy and his cult resort to all the lies and obvious cheating. They’re scared and think that that is the way they will “win” but you can’t argue with math and statistics.
We just have to keep doing what we’re doing to hold them accountable for the lies and cheating. It’s the only way to keep them from ruining our democracy.