I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts about the Supreme Court's apparent decision to overturn
Roe v. Wade, which was made clear in a
leaked draft of the Court's ruling written by Samuel Alito. If the leak was an attempt by a clerk for a dissenting justice to harness public opinion so that a member of the majority might have a change of heart and go along
merely with upholding Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban, it's not going to work -- these are self-righteous justices, convinced that they have a monopoly on truth and morality on this issue, and aware that they're backed not only by the Republican Party (which has been the dominant political party in America since Ronald Reagan's election), but also by a strong billionaire-funded network of institutions that keeps their kind in power no matter who wins elections. They won't have second thoughts, no matter the public reaction. With the possible exception of John Roberts, Republicans, including Republican Supreme Court justices, don't do second thoughts. They're at war with the rest of us; imagining that they might have second thoughts is like imagining that Volodymyr Zelenskyy will wake up one morning and say, "You know, that Putin guy has a point." They have plans to radically transform America -- on guns, on the ability of government to regulate business, on LGBT rights. They've eroded voting rights (with Roberts's strong support) and will erode them further, possibly, fairly soon, endorsing the notion that state legislatures can reject election results. They have big plans. This leak won't slow them down.
But here's a side issue: This decision might be the end of any GOP voter resistance to the idea of nominating Donald Trump for president in 2024. Ron DeSantis has been coming on very strong, and I've seen it argued that he can claim victories -- against Disney, against pandemic public health measures -- that make him seem like a stronger figure than Trump.
But here's something he can't say:
I appointed the judges who saved the babies. We know that no one loves Trump as much as right-wing Evangelicals, who, bafflingly, believe he's a devout man of God. They see him as a Jesus figure, or as some other character from the Bible.
If Trump milks this, no one who runs against him in the primaries has a chance, not even Ron DeSantis.
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