Progressives Have No One But Themselves To Blame

Breaking: Supreme Court set to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Also breaking: Fish swim in the ocean.

I have only one question for progressives out there who are outraged that a super conservative majority on the Supreme Court is poised to overturn a 49 year-old landmark decision on abortion rights that will negatively impact the lives of millions of women across the country: Is this your first day on planet Earth?

Look, you can be "as mad as hell," to borrow a line from that well-known movie Network, at Samuel Alito, the author of this opinion; he's been dying to strike down Roe for years. You can lash out at Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all you want for lying under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee when they said that Roe was settled law. And, yes, I realize they never actually used the word "settled" in their testimony. They danced around it the same way vampires dance around a sunrise, but they knew full well what they were doing. You don't rise to the level of judge in this country without knowing a thing or two about semantics. And if it makes you happy, feel free to hold Mitch McConnell in as much contempt as you like. He was the one who held Merrick Garland's nomination hostage for almost an entire year.

But here's the thing: not one of these people is responsible for what is about to happen. The truth is if you're looking for someone to direct your ire at, you can begin by looking in the mirror. That's right, the mirror. The one place progressives never have the stomach to look.

Ever since they were successful in forcing Lyndon Johnson not to seek reelection in 1968, progressives have been on a mission to purge the Democratic Party of any and all impurities within its ranks. Terms like pragmatism, centrism, corporatism; indeed any use of the suffix "ism" that wasn't preceded by the word liberal or progressive was anathema to the cause.

Hubert Humphrey wasn't pure enough; Michael Dukakis wasn't pure enough; Al Gore wasn't pure enough; Hillary Clinton wasn't pure enough. It's those last two that are now front and center in this tragedy.

Between them, George W. Bush and Donald Trump nominated and had confirmed to the Supreme Court five justices. Had progressives turned out and voted for Gore and Clinton, those five justices would've been liberal instead of conservative.

Consider the implications: No Citizens United, no Heller, Roe codified, the Voting Rights Act upheld in its entirety. Indeed, the very justice who penned this majority opinion wouldn't even be on the Court had Gore been president instead of Bush. Think about that for a moment.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: elections have consequences. This obsession progressives have with only voting for candidates who completely adhere to their principles has had profound consequences for the Republic. People who sit at home rather than go to the polls because they don't feel "inspired" by the choices they have to vote for is the primary reason Republicans win elections. It certainly has nothing to do with the positions they hold, most of which are unpopular with a majority of Americans.

Rahm Emanuel said it best: Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. Well, it's time Democrats took a page or two out of the Republican playbook and fell in line before the last seventy years of jurisprudence is struck down. And don't kid yourselves. This Court won't stop with Roe. Next up will be Obergefell, mark my words, then Griswold, followed by Miranda and, heaven help us, Brown v. Board of Ed.

Think I'm overreacting? You haven't been paying attention. While progressives have been laser focused on passing massive social legislation, conservatives spent the better part of the last decade trying to turn back the clock to the 1950s. Why pass bills when you can have the judiciary do your dirty work for you? And if there's one thing McConnell has done exceedingly well, it's appoint judges to the bench who are in tune with his judicial philosophy. It will be his legacy when he leaves this planet.

If overturning Roe isn't enough to motivate progressives to turn out this November, then nothing will. And when women can no longer have access to safe abortions or contraception, when gays can no longer marry legally, when African Americans are subjected to poll taxes just to cast a ballot, when separate but equal becomes the law of the land, when interracial marriages are prohibited, when the police can interrogate suspects without the benefit of legal counsel, I don't want to hear a peep out of any of you. The nation doesn't need your inspiration; it requires your participation. I can assure you, the other side will have no such trouble finding its "inspiration" when it comes time to vote.

While you're so busy thumbing your nose at us "sellouts" you might want to consider that it was Bill Clinton, the most centrist Democratic president we've had since Harry Truman, who nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court. Don't judge a book by its cover.

There's no virtue in being a perpetual victim. Blaming Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin for not being liberals isn't going to help your cause. They are who they are; deal with it. We are six months away from the most consequential midterm election in American history. How it turns out will largely be up to you. You want a pony under the Christmas tree? Move to a ranch. You want to save this democracy? Get up off your ass and VOTE!