🧵I know I mostly toot about #Ukraine here, but the #SCOTUS has got me annoyed. More than they usually irritate me. People in my generation (elder #millennial), #GenX'ers, and #Boomers, mostly grew up with a court that's legacy was in many ways progressive. As a result, most folks respected & trusted the SCOTUS as an institution, especially when compared to the other branches of #government. #Watergate, #Clinton's #impeachment, & various #bribery & #misconduct scandals in #congress 1/n
Only reinforced this notion. #Justice's of the #SCOTUS have certainly been keen to portray themselves as "above the fray" of #Politics as well. As long as the #court continued to deliver rulings that were seen as working for the #rights, #liberty, and a more just #society, this mystique made sense. After all, it was the court that expanded the rights of #defendant's in court, #FreeSpeech, #RacialEquality, #womensrights, & #LGBTQ rights. The court of the latter half of the #20thcentury 2/n
Was in many ways a champion of #progressive causes. It's important to remember however that this period of the #SCOTUS is an aberration. Any decent student of #USHistory would immediately recognize that the #court has been a #reactionary institution, often it was the biggest impediment to #progressive causes & reform. Rather than safeguarding #rights & #liberty literally written into the #constitution, it worked to entrench & protect the interests of the wealthy & powerful 3/n
It's not an accident that #reactionary forces in #USPolitics have spent decades and literally billions of dollars for the infrastructure to "recapture" the #Judiciary, especially #SCOTUS. #Liberal's, #Progressive's & esp #Democrats may be spooked by talk of major #reform or #amendment's to the #constitution because they seem #Radical, or somehow undermining the #court as an institution. Well the court is doing a fine job undermining the institution all by itself. 6/n
Between the rulings stripping #rights that generations of #American's grew up believing in & depending on, the junkets with #billionaires, & their hollow "trust us" rhetoric, more & more folks will come to see #Justice's of the #SCOTUS for what they are & always have been: #Politicians in robes. I hope my fellow citizens of this great republic will wake up & #vote appropriately. At this point anyone running for office NOT screaming about checking the #court won't get my vote.
@DeeGLloyd like freedom for Ukraine, the progressive rights we want must be fought for the hard way and will be much more meaningful to us than if a room with some lawyers declared them for us
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