Elizabeth Warren Is Going To Burn Shit Down
"WE ARE NOT POWERLESS!!," she screams into the void
Elizabeth Warren is pissed. AND she has plans. That’s one of the things I loved about her Presidential campaign (Note: She would’ve been a FAR better President than Joe Biden. Just sayin’.).
I HAVE A PLAN FOR THAT!!
So when the Supreme Court tossed out Roe v. Wade, the Senator from Massachusetts was not predisposed to take it lying down. No, she wanted to burn shit down…but in a good way, unless you’re a Republican.
Sen. Warren understands that the only people in Congress who are going to be willing to do anything to salvage a woman’s right to abortion are Democrats. While Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) may be tilting at the windmills of bipartisanship, Sen. Warren already has a plan of attack in mind.
This is obviously a sharp contrast to the Senate’s most useless Democrat Kyrsten Sinema’s post-Dobbs remarks that she’ll "continue working with anyone to protect women’s ability to make decisions about their futures.” Like who? Her good buddy John Cornyn grossly compared Roe v. Wade, which ensured that women are considered fully people, with Plessy v. Ferguson, which declared Black people less than fully human.
Warren understands that the only people who’ll help defend abortion rights are Democrats (we mean, pro-choice Democrats, of course), and unlike Sinema, those Democrats must prioritize reproductive freedom over the filibuster. Last September, the House passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, which codified the protections in Roe, but the bill failed in the Senate, where anti-choice Republicans enjoy minority rule thanks to willing accomplices Joe Manchin and Sinema. That’s fine. We just need to compensate for their useless idiocy with more Democratic senators.
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week," Warren told host Martha Raddatz, "We get two more senators on the Democratic side ... willing to protect access to abortion and get rid of the filibuster ... And, yes, John Fetterman, I’m looking at you in Pennsylvania. Mandela Barnes, I’m looking at you in Wisconsin.”
This is a clear plan of action that’s particularly motivating because it’s achievable. Democrats aren’t flipping 10 more Senate seats anytime soon, and they shouldn’t have to when they already represent 40 million more Americans than Republicans do. There is no moral justification for the filibuster, and we should never elect another Democrat who supports what Barack Obama rightly called a "Jim Crow relic."
Until and unless Manchin and Sinema get off their backsides and begin acting like Democrats, it will be exceedingly difficult for the majority party to accomplish much. Whether or not it’s a deliberate strategy (Are they secretly playing for the other team?), Manchin and Sinema have become the chief obstacles to progress in the Senate.
Two more Democratic Senators would neuter Manchin and Sinema, whatever their game is. Then, if they want to become Republicans or Socialists or Martians, let them have at it. No one will care because they’ll no longer have the ability to throw sand in the gears of the Democratic agenda.
Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman is leading TV doctor Mehmet Oz in that race, and polls show Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes performing the best against GOP Senator Ron Johnson. Those are both states Joe Biden carried in 2020, so both should be winnable. However, Democrat Cheri Beasley is only slightly behind insurrectionist candidate Ted Budd in North Carolina. We should invest in that race, as well. I wish Democratic Rep. Val Demings was doing better against that worm Marco Rubio, but Florida is just a red state these days.
Warren said the Supreme Court has "burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had after their gun decision, after their voting decision, after their union decision. They just took the last of it and set a torch to it with the Roe v. Wade opinion.”
In Georgia, incumbent Raphael Warnock has opened up a 10-point lead over Herschel (a noun, a verb, and “I won the Heisman Trophy”) Walker, whose past is beginning to catch up with him. If Warnock can hold on and Fetterman and either Barnes or Beasley can pull out their races, Democrats might pull out a majority in the Senate.
Of course, the House may be another story. At this point, it’s still looking as if Democrats may lose their majority there. So we could be looking at two years of gridlocked government. Yay, progress!!
The next step should be to (finally) get rid of the filibuster. The House did it, and Armageddon did not descend upon the land. Democracy didn’t grind to a halt. The House still functions, and the Senate would, too. Getting a supermajority of 60 votes to pass anything is an example of the tyranny of the minority. Democrats have accomplished little of their agenda because they can’t muster 60 votes to go to the bathroom. The filibuster does nothing but allow the minority party to booger things up, and if there’s one thing Republicans excel at, it’s boogering things up.
Expanding the Supreme Court is also a very good option. There’s nothing magic about the number of justices, so if President Biden decided he wanted to add four justices to eliminate the current Conservative majority, he could do that. Donald Trump openly manipulated the Court’s ideological makeup, so righting that obvious wrong wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Currently, the Court is a political and ideological body entirely out of step with America. The Conservative majority on the Supreme Court is inflicting their ideological and religious beliefs on a far more moderate American population. “Doing impartial justice” no longer seems part of the Court’s bailiwick.
Once the Court is brought back into line, the arduous and challenging work would begin. Democrats need to figure out how to function as a party instead of a collection of individual politicians, each believing their concerns should take priority.
Warren also addressed the immediate humanitarian crisis the Court created when it declared half the nation second-class citizens. We must "help the women who are pregnant right now and need help. And that means sending resources to the states like New Mexico ... that border other states that are going to try to help out.” She urges Americans to get involved, volunteer, send money to groups such as Planned Parenthood. Abortion providers will likely need legal aid.
She also recommended that Biden “make abortion as available as possible with the tools he has, including medication abortion, including using federal lands as a place where abortions can occur.” Warren and Sen. Patty Murray from Washington led a group of 25 Democrats who sent a letter to the president shortly after the Dobbs draft opinion leaked outlining options the executive branch has available right now to protect women’s health from robed tyrants.
Meanwhile, voters should remain “focused like a laser on the election in November.”
Republicans have been successful, even in the minority, because they’re disciplined and hew to the dictates of the party over individual concerns. Say what you will about Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-KY); he’s managed to keep Republican Senators in line and thus stymie much of President Biden’s agenda.
Democrats need to find that sort of discipline because they historically have a reputation for being impossible to lead, not unlike herding cats. Progressive Democrats are often at loggerheads with moderates, making it difficult for the party to present a united front. Republicans have no such problem; they speak with one voice. That’s what will make the coming battles so tricky.
Right now, the conflict is a woman’s right to abortion, which should be paramount. Down the road, however, the Court may overturn the right to same-sex marriage or the right to contraception. In addition, there are other personal privacy issues that Democrats must stand firm against the Supreme Court rolling back.
I never thought I’d see a world in which my nieces have fewer rights than the generations of my wife and mother. We’ve already fought- and won- this battle, but six hyper-religious Conservative justices set America back 50 years. While most of us had hoped for progress, we’ve been reduced to fighting to reclaim rights that had previously existed for American women.
Women aren’t property, nor are they second-class citizens. It will take people like Elizabeth Warren to push Congress and the White House into taking action to restore what the Supreme Court has shattered. Congress can and should do it.
It won’t happen overnight, but if we keep up the pressure, Roe v. Wade will not be just a quaint chapter in American history. Hopefully, it will be our future, and personal privacy will once again be protected by legislation.
It’s time to arrest the decline of American democracy before we reach the point of no return.