Democratic Leaders: Are You Sleeping?

I don’t feel so good about my country.  I watched a YouTube video. It showed the first portion of Senator Whitehouse (of RI)’s presentation to the Senate about a fifty-odd year old plot layout to have corporations take control of government by subverting the Supreme Court.  It was written by William Powell before he was appointed to the Supreme Court.  His memo is also here:but I have to admit it was easier for me to understand by watching Senator Whitehouse explain it.

Backstep: I’ve always been an avid reader.  When I was a senior and about to graduate from high school, my favorite author was Taylor Caldwell.  She’s written many excellent books and now that I’m thinking about her, I want to go back and re-read her stuff.  I started to read her first novel, Dynasty of Death,  because the description sounded intriguing: two brothers in conflict.  I got more from the story than that! 

Caldwell wrote about a worldwide conspiracy of the CEOs of businesses and corporations to take control of their governments.  The conspirators had a long range plan for accomplishing this.  In addition, they planned wars in different locations at different times.  Wars are very profitable for business and that was the bottom line: wealth and power.  I remember how it opened my eyes.  Fiction?  Yes, but what if this was really happening?

Another book by the same author, Captains and the Kings, was similar in many ways.  To be honest, it felt like a fictional Kennedy story.  The patriarch, Joseph, immigrated to the United States from Ireland.  He worked his way up to the head of his own company, through determination and a definite lack of empathy.  There was a similar conspiracy of businesses with the same purpose: a quiet takeover of the company.  Similarities to the Kennedy family: a “curse” follows the family.  Joseph grooms oldest son Rory to become the first Catholic President of the United States.  However, Rory is too liberal for the conspirators and someone among them has Rory assassinated.

Ok, back to present time:  as I watched the videos, I immediately thought of those two books.  Justice Powell had written the blueprint for GQP behavior today.  The plan had to be implemented very slowly, insidiously, over five decades.  Slowly, slowly the GOP moved to obstruct and block legislation that would “harm” big business or that would help middle class citizens.  Fifty years ago, I had other things on my mind and wasn’t paying much attention to politics.  Except for Watergate, I can’t remember the squabbling between the parties that we’re seeing today.  Soon after Powell sent his memo out, Republicans got hold of it.  I remember that President Nixon nominated Powell for the Supreme Court.

I imagine that’s when the poisoning of the court began.

Then Majority Leader “Moscow” Mitch McDonnell sealed the evil deal of packing SCOTUS with conservatives by refusing to hold hearings for President Obama’s nominee to the court after Antonin Scalia died.  Obama chose Merrick Garland, and McConnell declared he wouldn’t hold any hearings until after the 2020 election.  As a result of this illegal maneuver (that apparently no one tried to stop), tRump was able to pack the court with ultra right wing screwballs.

In the next session, SCOTUS agreed to hear a case that could totally change the way we have elections.  The case is called Moore vs. Harper.  The Rethugs in NC came up with a redistricting plan that only served to profit them and the state court threw out their maps.  The Rethugs sued, claiming that throwing the maps out was a violation of the Constitution’s election clause.

“In their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, however, the Republican lawmakers argue that the U.S. Constitution's Elections Clause gives state legislatures the power to determine how congressional elections are conducted without any checks and balances from state constitutions or state courts.”

Really?  That means anything goes in an election.  If we don’t like who got the popular vote, we just throw them out so “our guy” wins.  This has the potential of completely overturning democracy.  Voting is our only power.  It’s take away if authorities decide they don’t want a particular set of votes counted.

It would be a total disaster.

But no one is talking about it.  The Democratic leaders are dismayingly quiet or blowing useless raspberries.  Nothing is being done.  It’s going to happen because everyone at the top is sleeping at the wheel.  I’ll have to write to my reps, the Speaker of the House, and the Majority Leader about this.  They can’t sit on the hands anymore, wishing it would all just go away.

It’ll go away, all right, but if no action is taken, no one will be free.