At times, our government can seem petty and churlish, and perhaps nothing embodies that quite like the United States Supreme Court. After all, there’s only nine justices, and they serve for life. (Technically, the Constitution says they serve “during good behavior,” but historically no one has seemed to care if they were assholes; even Samuel Chase was acquitted.) As you might imagine, then, determining just who becomes one of those nine justices is important.
I was upset when Republicans blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland. Not because I knew anything about Merrick Garland, but the very effort of doing so seemed to cheapen the way our government was supposed to work. Of course, as soon as a new President came along, the Republicans remembered how to confirm justices again, and they appointed Neil Gorsuch. Then came Brett Kavanaugh. By the time Amy Coney Barrett got pushed through, it was pretty obvious these Republicans had a plan. Earlier today, a leaked document published by Politico made that plan apparent: The Supreme Court -- well, most of it, anyway -- is fed up with deadbeat dads. If there is one bipartisan issue upon which I hope we can all agree, it’s that many American men have been jerks and idiots for quite some time. That manifests in a host of ways, but one example happens when American men impregnate women but then flee from their responsibilities in child-rearing. So it appears I owe the Republicans an apology. I, too, think those who are fathers should do their part in the raising of their children, whether in actual parenting or in the financial support of those who do the actual parenting. Kudos to these brave five justices who want to ensure more money gets provided to America’s mothers. But I admit, I never expected five justices would feel so strongly about deadbeat dads they would work to ensure America would have even more of them. I could not have foreseen the Court would want to ramp up the number of American pregnancies just to get as much money into women’s hands as possible. It’s almost like Republicans recognize America’s women are owed for the historic injustices perpetrated against them and have decided the only way to make those wrongs right is financial compensation. Let hope this trend continues, and Republicans already have a plan to get money into the hands of America’s Black and Native populations, too. And yeah, I know all the arguments the whining liberals have against this move. I mean, sure, some women are going to go to other countries to get an abortion, but c'mon -- only the rich ones! And sure, among the poor and middle class, some women will get illegal abortions, but if we catch them, they'll help bolster our anemic incarceration numbers. Even if we don't catch them, some of them will die because their abortions were unsafe, just as some who choose not to have those unsafe abortions will die in the process of Court-mandated childbirth. But it's high time for America to realize that the preventable deaths of people Republicans don't care about is just the cost of Freedom. But this website isn't supposed to be about politics; it's supposed to be about finding pieces of good news when the world seems ready to provide us with so much bad news. So here's the good news: All of this came to light in advance of the midterm elections. When the time comes, vote your conscience. Or maybe this time, vote your ovaries. If you don't have ovaries, vote for your mothers and sisters and daughters and friends and loved ones who do.
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AuthorE. M. Brehm Archives
January 2022
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