There have been dozens of articles written describing the Supreme Court as a threat to American democracy.
There have been dozens of articles written saying that the Supreme Court is the enemy of democracy.
And there are many articles saying that the Supreme Court is at war with democracy.
I've been thinking it but Ryan Grim's article on the role of pro-Israel PACs in influencing democratic progressive primary elections, which Citizens United enabled, motivated me to look into this further. Most of the articles have been written since the reversal of Roe V Wade. But That happened because Citizens United enabled billionaires and secret organizations to win elections at the state and local levels. This has also been worsened by SCOTUS decisions which took away voting rights or repressed voting.
Every war has generals. At the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are generals in the war on Democracy. But above them are the billionaires and billionaire families who are enabling the dismantling of honest elections. Those billionaires include foreign money-- Saudi monarchs, Chinese Tech billionaires... there are about 1500 billionaires outside the US. And I believe that interfering in US elections and politics has become just about an essential element in billionaire and corporate business and investment strategies. Let's be perfectly clear. These strategies are, each and every one, battles aimed at destroying, disrupting or grotesquely transforming democracy.
I believe that between corporations and billionaires the level of interference in democracy-- let's call a spade a spade-- attacks on democracy-- has massively increased, because the Supreme court made it legal and easy. Foreign interference in elections should be considered a declaration of war against America. Billionaire and corporate funders of election and political interference should face serious criminal charges. But that is not happening and even if it did, there have been so many corrupt partisan judges appointed that even if there charges, they would likely be ignored.
I don't know if tide in the war on Democracy can be turned, but one thing is certain, to do so requires leaders and generals fighting back.
Almost twenty years ago, (about 2004) at the annual Take Back America Conference Bill Moyers told the audience, "We're in a class war and the other side is winning." Was he right.
The fact is, now, we are in a war against democracy and the other side is winning.
We need generals. We need funders. The right has been vilifying George Soros for years, and most recently have recognized that he is, indeed, fighting against the threats to Democracy. I'm glad he is. While the right despises Soros, I appreciate him. And we need a lot more people, including billionaires and corporations. Yes, there are, like Yvon Chouinard who donated his company, Patagonia, to fight climate change.
We need to acknowledge that there is a war and we have to start fighting back. That means naming the enemies and the enablers of the war on Democracy. And we need to start supporting those who are fighting to protect democracy. If we start doing that we may very well encourage more people, corporations and organizations to join the fight. Because, believe me, the enemies of democracy-- which includes the right wing media-- are doing all they can to vilify and attack, if not destroy those people and organizations.
One last thought. When democracy is warred upon, Fascists benefit. Check out Chuck Pennachio's article on fighting fascism.
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