In the biggest leak since Deep Throated Watergate and the Pentagon Papers publication, the SCOTUS draft opinion of Justice Samuel Alito is now part of the polarizing public record–and a precursor of the Court likely striking down Roe v. Wade.
It’s a sobering, Machiavellian reminder that even on an issue such as a woman’s bodily autonomy–one that polls show most Americans agree with–presidents have a workaround with Supreme Court nominations. As a result of Donald Trump’s right-wing-appointments legacy, the Court is now perversely politicized. John Roberts is no longer even a swing vote. It’s likely we’ll have more red states, with Florida obviously no exception, that will push the anti-abortion agenda even further legislatively.
Call it a democratic inflection point for the ultimate in women’s rights. One that comes at a time when the Democratic Party faces fraught mid-terms behind a scuffling, incumbent president.
It doesn’t sound very progressive for Democrats to fall in line–and not in love–but that is what’s required if the Dems are to do everything possible to prevent reversing a half century of settled law of the land. That means rallying around Roe for America to choose choice and female freedom over the criminalization of abortion.
It also means an issue so galvanizing that it could even avert a worst-case mid-term scenario for the Dems—and help reduce the fundraising gap with GOPsters. With that in mind, let’s not forget the idealistic hissy fitters who enabled Trump by staying home in 2016 because Hillary Clinton—not Bernie Sanders—was their party’s presidential nominee. That has to be an ongoing, teachable moment, and Democrats have to be relentless in tying Republicans to women’s-rights denigration.
“You can’t just talk about it now.” emphasizes Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. “You have to keep talking about it because what we don’t want to happen is for this to fall off people’s radars.”
In short, if Roe v. Wade can be overturned, nothing is off the table. And that includes reversing right wing-nut momentum.