We rethink the week with Dean Spiliotis, Civic Scholar and Presidential Scholar at Southern New Hampshire University, blogging at NHPolitics.com; Val Endress, professor of political communications, Rhode Island College; and Steven Greene, professor of political science at North Carolina State University.
LOSING RBG IS A WAKE-UP CALL: ELECTIONS MATTER; IT’S TIME FOR THE DEMOCRATS TO PLAY HARDBALL
RBG’s death provides a kind of wake-up call for folks who believe in the founding principles of this country. Elections matter. They affect a great many public policies but they also shape our courts, and that can have a huge impact upon every aspect of our lives. RBG’s pre-court legal career fundamentally changed how equality (especially but not exclusively equality for women) is treated in our legal system. She won over the public – and nine male Justices – to acknowledge her definition of feminism as, in its essence, simply about the right of women to be their own person – to follow their dreams and to accomplish whatever they want – without having their choices limited by what their parents or their husbands or society deemed to be “appropriate” for them.
At the same time, RBG, like other great people whom we’ve lost this year, provides a kind of civics lesson. She continued to perform the strenuous work of the Supreme Court right up until the day she died, even while fighting an epic personal struggle against pancreatic cancer. She was preceded in death by Elijah Cummings who signed Congressional subpoenas (to oversee Trumpian abuses) while laying on his death bed. And John Lewis walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2020, and wrote a NYTimes op ed the day before he died, to be published posthumously.
The civics lesson is this: None of us can think that there’s nothing we can do about the future of our country or the world. We must be like RBG et al, whoe persevered, they didn’t give up, they kept on speaking up. That’s what it requires if we want to preserve our democracy. We owe it to them to give everything we can give. We can’t quit in despair even if we (incorrectly) believe that we’re powerless. Collectively, we all have the power to make a difference. We must continue participating diligently until the last breath.
In some ways, the Trump/McConnell hubris in mobilizing to appoint RBG’s successor on the Court in the few weeks that remain before Election Day may have “awakened the beast.” It reminds Democrats that they have to fight back as if their lives depend on it. Democrats have always believed in the fair fight, (perhaps naively) assuming that the “best” positions would prevail. But the Republicans didn’t play by the same rules. They think they should rule by divine right. The Democrats’ values will never become reality if they continue naively extending their hands to achieve some bipartisan consensus when the Republicans keep moving their starting position (the goalposts) further to the right. As they say in the Middle East, one needs a “partner for peace” in order to achieve a cooperatively negotiated resolution of any conflict.
Does fighting back against the Republican agenda mean the Democrats should lie and cheat (as McConnell did when he showed no respect for Merrick Garland or for our democratic institutions)? No. But the Dems must play serious hardball. i.e., use whatever levers of power they possess in order to win. They no longer need to hold back in an effort to maintain cordial working relations with the “other side.” No one will be singing kumbaya any time soon.
THE CRISIS FOR PEOPLE WHO “SURVIVE” COVID.
We also discuss the pandemic crisis, in particular an aspect of it that is not highlighted much in the news. In addition to the 200,000 Americans who have now died as a result of coronavirus, there are many many more people who are either asymptomatic or who “survive” the disease, but who suffer serious medical and other consequences from having had the virus. For example, 50% of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients had abnormal lung CT scans. Others have had coronary problems. Some have been forced to go on dialysis, and may need a kidney transplant. All of these people have to be counted among the victims of this cruel disease and of our country’s failure to take appropriate public health steps to contain it.
These consequences for “long-haulers” turn the COVID issue into an issue about health care. Will COVID be treated as a preexisting condition, when people seek medical care in the future for these after-effects of having been infected with COVID? If someone has lost their health insurance because they lost their jobs (due to the pandemic), and if Trump is successful in overturning Obamacare, will any future private insurer agree to cover the massive expenses of a lung or kidney transplant? Or of any of the other uncertain complications? Even if Biden is elected and we adopt a “more robust public option” (in addition to the private insurance market), how will the federal government find the money to appropriate for this expensive health care? Lots to think about.
