The Supreme Court conservatives essentially lied through their confirmation hearings, piously saying they would “respect precedent.” Now we also know some are demonstrably corrupt. Less noted is that, going back decades, they are also remarkably stupid. They made George W. Bush president, and he gave us two of the longest wars in our history and a global financial crash.
Now they want to make Donald Trump president — with immunity from prosecution. They invented a version of the Second Amendment that turned the country into a free-fire zone, tearing out the words about “well-regulated militias.”
Also torn out was the part of the 14th Amendment barring people from holding political office who have tried to overthrow the government. They allowed billionaires to contribute unlimited amounts of money to campaigns — no, I’m not making this up — in secret. Then they loosened the rules against bribing government officials!
They overthrew Roe v. Wade — after telling Congress they would not. It would lead to a great moral reawakening! It did not. It created an appalling mess, placing the lives of women at risk. Then Justice Clarence Thomas declared himself the nation’s expert on machine guns — followed by the court declaring itself the technical experts on everything else — in an opinion that confused nitrous oxide (laughing gas) with nitrogen oxide (smog) five times.
Now Justice Samuel Alito wants us to turn the government over to religious conservatives. This will bring about that “moral reawakening” that was supposed to come about when we banned abortion; banning contraceptive devices, homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, pornography, comic books. It never did.
Robert Supansic
McKeesport