https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/grim-fourth-july-arrives-age-trump
MGB: Independence Day has always been a holiday of both unity and protest. I recall spending the day marching with John Ray in the DC Palisades Parade, where John was seen as the antidote to first Marion Barry and then Sharon Kelly. John never got the Democratic nomination. When Marion was elected a fourth time, I marched with him in the same parade. The citizens of this upper Northwest DC neighborhood, which held the highest concentration of Republicans in the city, politely greeted him as their Mayor. Hard work by those of us privileged to call him a friend had raised his standing, even there and he could have won a fifth term were it not for outsiders on the Republican side who disliked him as much as Trump disliked Obama, and for the same reasons. In later years, I marched with Stand Up for Democracy in DC and were were always greeted warmly.
Donald Trump started his political career protesting Obama's legitimacy due to his citizenship, although Obama's papers were always in order, which is more than can be said for Trump's mother and his current wife. It is pathological that Trump's secret shame is what he most accused Obama of, rather unjustly. His actions in attempting to reverse everything Obama did show that he has no agenda but stoking racism in his aging base and their misguided children, which is easier than having ideas of his own. He is not in this for change, he is a textbook reactionary. Ironically, Obama, through his mother, traces back to both Jamestown and Plymouth.
The Trump family are recent immigrants and have no idea of those values that in some families trace back as far as cousins Barack and George. Still, he had a right to run, but should have had opposition research done on himself before he did. That he did not and this past criminality is now being investigated, as well as his clumsy attempts to hide it are what we will be talking about in November, not abortion.
Most legal scholars on both sides, including Justices Roberts and Alito, will tell you that abortion is settled law (especially since Roberts and Alito voted with Kennedy to uphold abortion rights rather than with Scalia and Thomas when they wanted to use the Partial Birth abortion ban to overturn Roe ,which was the intent of the law in the first place. Most of the Pro-Life movement involves sending up abortion restictions to get the Court to overturn Roe and all off them are swatted down. We still do not know if Gorsuch will vote like Roberts or Thomas, but if he does the former, there is currently only one anti-abortion Justice on the Court. Roe is not going anywhere, nor should it. Privacy, which is the right to be left alone by state legislatures, is not going anywhere, nor is federal supremacy on equal protection (which is the bane of the Federalist Society's reactionaries).
Everyone is up in arms about Janus, however it was expected and the remedy is not protest or hoping for repeal (the Citizens United opposition is similarly hopeless). The solution is to legislate closed shops so that Feds have to join the union. Since that is not likely, unions will be forced to transform or die. I believe their salvation is becoming involved in the movement to employee-ownership, where they could serve a role representing their members in democratic decision-making and disciplinary matters. As coopertive industry expands, it will absorb much of what local government does, of AFSCME will also transform into a private sector, closed shop, union.
Trump v. Hawai'i was expected. Anyone who looked at the Roberts and Alito confirmation hearings knows the deference both hold for the President in foreign policy decisions, not because they are conservatives but because that is what is found in precedent and law. Still, judges across the country are siding with the immigrant children in the latest migration from Hondures and Guatemala. You will recall that Trump spoke of this group, using the Big Lie to call them rapists and thugs, when they were only families with children.
Sadly, the FoxNews and alternative media followers of Trump believed him, but the center has not. He has finally crossed the line in his self-loathing indecency to let his true color fly. The only question is whether the Republicans do a quick about face and shoot their own dog or we wait for a Democratic wave election to be held about presidential crimes and character. While there are those of his followers who see nothing wrong and agree with his conservatism, whether it be for racism or abortion, they will not be able to hold out against the blue tide. Unless the GOP acts fast, they will be swept away with Trump on Election Day. Good riddance.
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