What Happened To The Democrats?
ewerickson.substack.com
Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court is a culmination of 40 years of effort by conservatives within the Republican party. While Democrats have been embedding themselves within Fortune 500 companies, institutions of education, and mainstream media outlets, conservatives worked overtime to find and train pro-life candidates to run for office and win. By understanding how to build a coalition of like-minded Americans, pro-life candidates have been elected across the country from dog-catcher to President and the results speak for themself. If Democrats fail to follow suit, they will continue to wander in the wilderness just like Republicans did for a very long time. Let me explain:
What happened to the Democrats! What happened to the Republicans?
Despite being a believer in small government and that the states were intended by the framers to be our primary units of government; despite believing that life in any form is precious and that lawful gun owners pose little danger to the rest of us; despite conservative beliefs that go on and on, I could never be a Republican. Let ME explain.
One of the most formative experiences of my life was service as a commissioned officer in the United States Army. I brought to that service love of country, but what only developed after my commissioning was a profound sense of, and commitment to the concept of honor. What I believe began at West Point as something called the Cadet's Code, I learned as a creed to be followed by every member of the officer corps:
"i will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor will I tolerate those who do."
There remain a great number of Republicans who would satisfy the first part of that Code. They are the ones now appearing before the January 6th Committee, detailing the pressure, threats, and abuse they underwent in order to remain true to our Constitution. Nevertheless, to their dishonor, every one of them has come to simply accept the lying, cheating, and stealing that has been done by other Republicans.
Erick, Republicans did not win control of the Supreme Court by sheer commitment and perseverance of the sort that you described. Rather, Clarence Thomas claimed at his confirmation hearings that despite Roe vs. Wade having been decided while he was in law school, he never really discussed it with any of his classmates. Seriously? I would concede that questions concerning how a prospective justice might rule in any given case are improper. If asked such a question, however, the proper response is to decline comment. Nevertheless, by my count, at least three of the justices in the Dobbs majority effectively answered that question when they termed Roe "settled law." In sum, they all lied their way onto the Court.
When a vacancy occurred on the Court in the last year of Obama's administration, Senate Republicans took the position that it should not be filled in the year before a presidential election. Then when a vacancy they wanted to fill occurred in even closer proximity to such an election, they filled it. In sum, Senate Republicans cheated.
Right now, as the January 6th Committee takes apart the claims of some (not all) Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen, it has become strikingly apparent that is THEY who were trying to steal an election. Hence, we have the completion of the trifecta: lying, cheating, and stealing.
I follow these postings because I find Erick to be a thoughtful, insightful and honest man. However, he just called the only man who failed to peacefully relinquish power as was done by each and every one of his predecessors since Washington, and who to this day persists in telling the most damaging and pernicious lie in the history of our country, a "great President." This is a reflection of the unfortunate fact that every good and decent person in the Republican Party now stands shoulder to shoulder with (i.e., tolerates) a great many cohorts whom he knows will lie, cheat or steal. In sum, I could never be a Republican because yours has become a party without honor.
So when I look at the Dobbs decision and how it's reversal of Roe was ACTUALLY obtained (that is, by lying and cheating), I can only ask . . . . What happened to the Republicans?
I am so relieved! Hopefully we can now move on from this issue. When Republicans entered into the unholy agreement with the SBC to support anti-abortion legislation, it diverted much needed resources from critical Republican efforts to limit government. Can we now move on to the critical need to reduce Federal spending and limit the overreach of government in our lives? Please let this issue die forever.