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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t it always seem to go that you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got till it\u2019s gone?\u201d – Joni Mitchell<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It was 2016, and I was phone banking into Nevada for the presidential election. \u201cDo you know if you\u2019re planning on voting for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in November?\u201d I asked the man who answered the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re both morons, but I\u2019m a conservative and I want conservative judges so I\u2019m voting for Trump!\u201d he replied before slamming down the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had to admire his strategic clarity. If only those who support abortion rights were so fervent and clear-sighted! Now, after death by a thousand cuts whittled away access for decades, the right-wing Supreme Court seems poised to deliver the final blow, erasing 50 years of a constitutional right supported by a large majority of Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Supreme Court was really lost in 2016, when Mitch McConnell got away with stealing an open seat from President Obama, liberals were not as motivated to vote as Nevada Guy was, Hillary Clinton lost in the electoral college, and RBG lost her gamble that she could outlive cancer and Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now those of us who cherish the right to choose have lost even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents of reproductive rights have fanatically pursued their agenda for decades. Alas, proponents have not matched their zeal\u2013until now. SCOTUS\u2019s expected evisceration of Roe v Wade is the wake-up call that\u2019s finally mobilized millions of Americans who support the right to choose. There\u2019s nothing like fear and anger to motivate voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No doubt the SCOTUS leaked draft will be tidied up before its official release. But it\u2019s impossible to mask the stench of this radical decision, which threatens not only the right to control one\u2019s own body, but so many other fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWill this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?\u201d Justice Sonia Sotomayer asked at the hearings for this case in December 2021. No. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will take time to clear the air, regain the ground we have lost. But as Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson notes, \u201cThe only thing that can stop a bad politician with a vote is a good citizen with a vote.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cDon\u2019t it always seem to go that you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got till it\u2019s gone?\u201d – Joni Mitchell It was 2016, and I was phone banking into Nevada for the presidential election. \u201cDo you know if you\u2019re planning on … Continue reading