It is an understatement to say that this is such a critically important essay, and it is eloquently expressed. Thank you David Rothkopf.
The only way to ensure victory in November is by voting in overwhelming numbers. Anything short of that will face legal challenges by fascist operatives who will take their appeals all the way up to the "Supreme Court." And the contemptible ruling by the Court yesterday, one that shreds any pretense of upholding justice and law, makes it plain that the SC will throw the election to Trump.
The question then, is how do we galvanize a lethargic electorate to vote in never before seen numbers?
Spot on David, everything in your essay! I especially thought your closing that took the end of the Declaration of Independence: “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” speaks volumes about what they were willing to put on the line for their beliefs. They knew exactly what they were doing by signing their name. Are we in the US today willing to do the same for our belief that the government “of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth”? There were those in 1776 who disagreed and wanted to remain under a king. We can’t expect unanimity today either. But that should not deter us. We must keep our eye on the ball ignoring the naysayers and folks who have put their lot with other values for whatever reasons and work for this unwavering goal of preserving our precious national heritage that was never obtained on a silver platter but rather though much effort, toil and sacrifice.
The SCOTUS just went medieval. They have created a symbiotic relationship with POTUS akin to a King and the Papacy. The COTUS has no meaning now. Biden has to use some of his newfound powers to try to right this wrong. And We the People need to get of our collective asses and fight for democracy. There is no plan B. There is nowhere else to go. If we fall, so does western democracy. I imagine our allies are as horrified as we are. They have no say in our elections yet they are directly affected by our choice. If we get through this, we need to have a movement for global democracy. Borders no longer separate us and our fate is shared.
"[O]n the pediment of our highest court, we had etched the words “Equal Justice Under Law.”
For what it's worth, the pediment is the triangular part. These aspirational words are etched on the architrave, the main beam resting on top of the columns.
On Thursday, the 4th of July, I'll be participating for the umpteenth time in a community reading of Frederick Douglass's famous speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" My part this year comes near the beginning. It begins with a reminder of what July 4, 1776, was about: "But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to."
Douglass gave this speech on July 5, 1852. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had extended the reach of the slaveholders into the North. "Bleeding Kansas" -- the fight over the extension of slavery into the western territories -- was on the horizon. The 1850s were, to put it mildly, a turbulent decade. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state to secede from the Union on December 20.
Any comparison between that time and this is inexact at best, but when on Thursday I read Douglass's words about "the infallibility of government," I will be thinking of the SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity and hoping that today's USians can find it within ourselves to take the promise of democracy as seriously as Frederick Douglass did.
I hear you and I’m with you every step of the way. But if you know what on earth needs doing then tell me now. I teach American politics to college kids and they feel chicken littled about the threats we are facing. “You people *always* say it’s the most important election of our lifetimes. How do we tell people to light their already smoldering hair on fire? What are the words they can hear?
I just suggested Frederick Douglass's 1852 speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" It's not a bad place to start. Your students are right: election-time rhetoric is part of the problem. They may not be old enough to have had the experience of so many of us, of getting out there and door-knocking, phone-calling, and contributing to candidates, only to have most of them revert to the mean and fail to even answer our emails.
Good question. One way is to underscore just how momentous yesterday's decision is. 248 years of history out the window. We are restoring a king and an aristocracy in America. If they feel powerless now, wait till tomorrow. It will make today look like the good old days.
Dobbs was momentous. Chevron was momentous. Now this is more momentous. We are getting buried in an avalanche of existential calamity, right before what is quite possibly the last July 4th when we can legitimately celebrate our national commitment to our founding values. We are so exhausted from the fallout from that debate and the increasingly stupid and magical thinking-based reactions to it. We are all so beleaguered, so hunkered down looking at what is before us, we can’t raise our eyes up to feel a scintilla of the hope that is going to be necessary for us to power through and win this. We don’t even know who we are looking to to lead us because we can’t be definitive about who our candidate is.
I really think that in the world of defcon threats, this is the defconniest. I would feel 100% better right now if the party said, Joe Biden is our candidate. He’s an old guy and we’re not going to ask him to run marathons for us or to debate convicts. He doesn’t need to do that. He needs to show up every single day and say what he said last night and we need to amplify it and shout it out and carry it to the streets.
He’s not perfect but he’s ours and he’s been great and fantasies about brokered conventions may feel satisfying but they doom us and they doom democracy.
We don’t have time to find the perfect candidate. We need to embrace the old guy who stood up for us last night. Why can’t we do that? Paralysis over the race will lead to paralysis everywhere else.
Haunting and so well written. I visualize the sketches that should be dispersed among your words.
My heart aches for a massive demonstration. I need desperately to feel the power of collective humanity on the side of democracy. My feelings are so strong. I feel that our country and the world need to see and hear our outrage. I don't want to be silent. I am ready to take action for the democracy I embrace. I am ready to take action in honor of those who sacrificed everything to secure the freedoms we all love.
That's why I feel a national protest would make people pay attention to what's happening. I don't know how else we get people to snap out of their complacency.
Of course, we must elect Democrats up and down ballot...but that's a bandaid in lieu of surgery.
Democrats have no plans to fix the damage. Biden could spend the next 5 months talking about codifying a litany of rights (already obliterated or in the direct line of fire by SCOTUS) by obliterating the filibuster and drastically reforming the Court.
Does anyone believe he'll do this?
Does anyone believe the ever-fearful Durbin will lead the charge on Court reform?
Electing Democrats will be a bulwark against permanent apocalypse, but the Court will decimate more rights every term unless they're stopped.
It's true that part of the reason we're in this state of affairs is the weak push back by Dems over the years since the Reagan revolution and when they no longer dominated the congress as they had for years. Johnson was right when he said Dems would lose the south for a generation. Actually, it seems like we lost it permanently. The price for trying to rid our nation of racism and apartheid. It feels like the GOP are the Germans & we Dems are the citizens of Belgium just watching them roll right on through & it all being over in 18 days.
So then, what is the point of electing democrats—because to both of you they won’t do anything? You want them to end the filibuster but it takes a majority in the Senate we do not have.
If Biden ran on packing the court it would energize the right, who correctly kept their eyes on the prize for six decades while the left called any warnings fear-mongering and lacked the imagination to understand just how far they would go and their tenacity to do it.
And just what should Biden do to reform the court right now? Just add a few judges without Senate confirmation? That would surely be challenged and knowing this court they will rule against him because their decision was for Trump alone—kinda like in 2000.
Here is the slippery slope. Do we want our side to ignore the rule of law (what we believe in and what’s left of it)? Then what sets us apart from them? And by doing so, wouldn’t it completely mean the end of laws?
It’s not enough electing Dems—we need to elect enough Dems to give us the numbers to make change. If you want to actually function under (what’s left of) our democratic system.
Excellent column, David. And to think how far we've traveled! https://tinyurl.com/3ucecxyj 🇺🇸
Thank you.
Amen, David, Amen.
It is an understatement to say that this is such a critically important essay, and it is eloquently expressed. Thank you David Rothkopf.
The only way to ensure victory in November is by voting in overwhelming numbers. Anything short of that will face legal challenges by fascist operatives who will take their appeals all the way up to the "Supreme Court." And the contemptible ruling by the Court yesterday, one that shreds any pretense of upholding justice and law, makes it plain that the SC will throw the election to Trump.
The question then, is how do we galvanize a lethargic electorate to vote in never before seen numbers?
Thank you.
Spot on David, everything in your essay! I especially thought your closing that took the end of the Declaration of Independence: “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” speaks volumes about what they were willing to put on the line for their beliefs. They knew exactly what they were doing by signing their name. Are we in the US today willing to do the same for our belief that the government “of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth”? There were those in 1776 who disagreed and wanted to remain under a king. We can’t expect unanimity today either. But that should not deter us. We must keep our eye on the ball ignoring the naysayers and folks who have put their lot with other values for whatever reasons and work for this unwavering goal of preserving our precious national heritage that was never obtained on a silver platter but rather though much effort, toil and sacrifice.
Thank you. And I agree.
The SCOTUS just went medieval. They have created a symbiotic relationship with POTUS akin to a King and the Papacy. The COTUS has no meaning now. Biden has to use some of his newfound powers to try to right this wrong. And We the People need to get of our collective asses and fight for democracy. There is no plan B. There is nowhere else to go. If we fall, so does western democracy. I imagine our allies are as horrified as we are. They have no say in our elections yet they are directly affected by our choice. If we get through this, we need to have a movement for global democracy. Borders no longer separate us and our fate is shared.
"[O]n the pediment of our highest court, we had etched the words “Equal Justice Under Law.”
For what it's worth, the pediment is the triangular part. These aspirational words are etched on the architrave, the main beam resting on top of the columns.
The Supreme Court describes the inscription as being of the pediment: https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/infosheets/westpediment.html?rwndrnd=0.8692890864331275. That said, when they say “of” the pediment as opposed to “on” the pediment they may be being lawyerly. So I will defer to your knowledge and use a different preposition going forward.
What to the Pedant is the Fourth of July? And it's still an architrave. There's a Monty Python skit about it somewhere.
Yes. And Happy Fourth!
On Thursday, the 4th of July, I'll be participating for the umpteenth time in a community reading of Frederick Douglass's famous speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" My part this year comes near the beginning. It begins with a reminder of what July 4, 1776, was about: "But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to."
Douglass gave this speech on July 5, 1852. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had extended the reach of the slaveholders into the North. "Bleeding Kansas" -- the fight over the extension of slavery into the western territories -- was on the horizon. The 1850s were, to put it mildly, a turbulent decade. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state to secede from the Union on December 20.
Any comparison between that time and this is inexact at best, but when on Thursday I read Douglass's words about "the infallibility of government," I will be thinking of the SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity and hoping that today's USians can find it within ourselves to take the promise of democracy as seriously as Frederick Douglass did.
Not just the promise of flawed democracy...the obligation flawed democracy imposes on citizens to fix it.
As the League of Women Voters has been saying for years, "Democracy is not a spectator sport."
I hear you and I’m with you every step of the way. But if you know what on earth needs doing then tell me now. I teach American politics to college kids and they feel chicken littled about the threats we are facing. “You people *always* say it’s the most important election of our lifetimes. How do we tell people to light their already smoldering hair on fire? What are the words they can hear?
I just suggested Frederick Douglass's 1852 speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" It's not a bad place to start. Your students are right: election-time rhetoric is part of the problem. They may not be old enough to have had the experience of so many of us, of getting out there and door-knocking, phone-calling, and contributing to candidates, only to have most of them revert to the mean and fail to even answer our emails.
Great idea. Thanks.
Good question. One way is to underscore just how momentous yesterday's decision is. 248 years of history out the window. We are restoring a king and an aristocracy in America. If they feel powerless now, wait till tomorrow. It will make today look like the good old days.
Dobbs was momentous. Chevron was momentous. Now this is more momentous. We are getting buried in an avalanche of existential calamity, right before what is quite possibly the last July 4th when we can legitimately celebrate our national commitment to our founding values. We are so exhausted from the fallout from that debate and the increasingly stupid and magical thinking-based reactions to it. We are all so beleaguered, so hunkered down looking at what is before us, we can’t raise our eyes up to feel a scintilla of the hope that is going to be necessary for us to power through and win this. We don’t even know who we are looking to to lead us because we can’t be definitive about who our candidate is.
I really think that in the world of defcon threats, this is the defconniest. I would feel 100% better right now if the party said, Joe Biden is our candidate. He’s an old guy and we’re not going to ask him to run marathons for us or to debate convicts. He doesn’t need to do that. He needs to show up every single day and say what he said last night and we need to amplify it and shout it out and carry it to the streets.
He’s not perfect but he’s ours and he’s been great and fantasies about brokered conventions may feel satisfying but they doom us and they doom democracy.
We don’t have time to find the perfect candidate. We need to embrace the old guy who stood up for us last night. Why can’t we do that? Paralysis over the race will lead to paralysis everywhere else.
Haunting and so well written. I visualize the sketches that should be dispersed among your words.
My heart aches for a massive demonstration. I need desperately to feel the power of collective humanity on the side of democracy. My feelings are so strong. I feel that our country and the world need to see and hear our outrage. I don't want to be silent. I am ready to take action for the democracy I embrace. I am ready to take action in honor of those who sacrificed everything to secure the freedoms we all love.
Thank you...and I hope this feeling infuses millions of us or we are lost.
That's why I feel a national protest would make people pay attention to what's happening. I don't know how else we get people to snap out of their complacency.
Of course, we must elect Democrats up and down ballot...but that's a bandaid in lieu of surgery.
Democrats have no plans to fix the damage. Biden could spend the next 5 months talking about codifying a litany of rights (already obliterated or in the direct line of fire by SCOTUS) by obliterating the filibuster and drastically reforming the Court.
Does anyone believe he'll do this?
Does anyone believe the ever-fearful Durbin will lead the charge on Court reform?
Electing Democrats will be a bulwark against permanent apocalypse, but the Court will decimate more rights every term unless they're stopped.
It's true that part of the reason we're in this state of affairs is the weak push back by Dems over the years since the Reagan revolution and when they no longer dominated the congress as they had for years. Johnson was right when he said Dems would lose the south for a generation. Actually, it seems like we lost it permanently. The price for trying to rid our nation of racism and apartheid. It feels like the GOP are the Germans & we Dems are the citizens of Belgium just watching them roll right on through & it all being over in 18 days.
You are absolutely right.
So then, what is the point of electing democrats—because to both of you they won’t do anything? You want them to end the filibuster but it takes a majority in the Senate we do not have.
If Biden ran on packing the court it would energize the right, who correctly kept their eyes on the prize for six decades while the left called any warnings fear-mongering and lacked the imagination to understand just how far they would go and their tenacity to do it.
And just what should Biden do to reform the court right now? Just add a few judges without Senate confirmation? That would surely be challenged and knowing this court they will rule against him because their decision was for Trump alone—kinda like in 2000.
Here is the slippery slope. Do we want our side to ignore the rule of law (what we believe in and what’s left of it)? Then what sets us apart from them? And by doing so, wouldn’t it completely mean the end of laws?
It’s not enough electing Dems—we need to elect enough Dems to give us the numbers to make change. If you want to actually function under (what’s left of) our democratic system.