October 19, 2020
With just over two weeks left before Election Day, our collective anxiety is at a fever pitch. Chastened by the trauma of 2016, we ignore the polls. Early turnout numbers from Texas and Georgia are encouraging, but the threat has not receded. Between the twin perils of surging Coronavirus case numbers and Trump’s full-throated embrace of his role as a stochastic terrorist, danger feels omnipresent.
Saturday, at a rally in Michigan, Trump once again attacked Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was the target of a kidnap and murder plot thwarted by the FBI just last week! Echoing the exact language of far-right domestic terrorists,Trump said Whitmer “wants to be a dictator,” and led his followers in chants of “lock her up,” (Source: “The return of ‘lock her up’: Trump won’t stop attacking Gretchen Whitmer,” by Cameron Peters, Vox.com, 10/18/20).
Sadly, Gov. Whitmer is not the only public official whose efforts to protect public health put them at risk from extremists. The domestic terrorists who plotted to kidnap her also discussed kidnapping Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, (Source: “Virginia Governor Was Also a PossibleTarget of Anti-Government Plot, FBI Says,” by Giulia McDonnell Nieto DelRio and Neil MacFarquahar, The New York Times, 10/13/20). Meanwhile, in Kansas, another would-be terrorist targeted Wichita, Kansas Mayor Brandon Whipple, (Source: “One arrested in threat to kidnap and kill Wichita mayor over COVID-19 mask mandate,” by Chance Swaim, Dion Lefler and Michael Stavola, The Wichita Eagle, 10/16/20).
The truth is that the actions of these domestic terrorists are the logical extension of the arguments posed by Trump and his MAGA cultists, who define their Constitutional right to “freedom” as the right to be free of even the slightest inconvenience, no matter how inconsequential, heedless of how many of their fellow Americans face illness and death as a result of their repudiation of reasonable public health measures. This distorted definition of freedom cannot be divorced from the white supremacy at its core, that contends that lives of the Black, Brown and Indigenous people bearing the brunt of this disease aren’t worth protecting.
While we should be comforted by the fact that the number of Americans who adhere to this toxic view and reject science is a minority, that minority’s views are being given the force of law, thanks to the Trumpist takeover of the federal and state judiciary. In Michigan, a Republican majority of the state Supreme Court held that Governor Whitmer’s emergency health orders violated the state Constitution, (Source: “Michigan High Court Strikes Down Governor’s COVID Emergency Orders,” by Andy Olesko, Courthousenews.com, 0/12/20).
In Pennsylvania, Trump appointee, Judge William Stickman cited the widely discredited 1905 Lochner decision to strike down Governor Wolf’s COVID-19 emergency orders limiting the capacity of indoor gatherings and closing certain businesses. In Lochner, the Supreme Court cited a spurious “right to contract” derived from the 14th Amendment to invalidate a New York State labor law designed to protect workers. Although never directly overturned, Lochner has not been considered good law since 1937, (Source: “Trump Judge: COVID Business Closures Violate Employer’s’ Constitutional Rights,” by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com, 9/15/20). Stickman’s tortured reasoning is evidence of the lengths to which these Trump judges will go to protect corporate interests at the expense of people.
We need to face the fact that, even if we win the Presidency, the Senate and the House, a determined minority of armed extremists, backed by a judiciary determined to repeal the 20th century, can do an awful lot of damage. By all means, we should work like hell to capture The White House and a Congressional majority in both houses. Just don’t think for a moment that our work will end on November 3rd.
#VOTEDOWNBALLOT
#SwingLeft