The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun Annie, The Musical
I know that these are dark times, and it’s easy to lose hope. While Judas Joe Manchin runs roughshod over the Senate in his endless quest for a unicorn, GOP dominated state legislatures are passing new restrictive voting laws by the bushel basket. But there is always hope, for one simple reason.
The more heinous state laws seem to be tilted towards giving the party in power, in this case the GOP, to use some political alchemy in order to override the will of the people, and vacate of adjust the results of a vote tally they don’t like. This is bad juju. But you have to remember one thing. These are all laws that have yet to be tested in court. When they’re tried out in real life, there are going to be lawsuits up the ass. Some in federal court, there the SCOTUS is greasing the skids to autocracy, but also in state courts.
I have written previously that the two most despised professions in the United States are lawyers and politicians. Well, judges are both. They are politically connected lawyers that ride their connections to a cushy lifetime job. Judges who are elected have to be responsive to voters, but political appointed will say whatever they need to say to be confirmed. But once they’re sworn in, they all become the same thing, independent judges. And therein lies the bright ray of sunshine today.
Missouri is a bright red state. Sweet Jesus, the red glow from the thing can almost be seen from the international space station. In November of 2020, Trump stomped Biden by more than 15 points. But something else even more important happened on that ballot. An overwhelming majority of Missourians voted on a binding referendum to give more than 270,000 fellow Missourians by accepting the ACA Medicaid expansion.
The GOP dominated legislature and Governor’s mansion immediately lost their collective shit. They signed a blizzard of executive orders and bills seeking to overturn the will of the people, and overturn the referendum. And as with so many things where hundreds of thousands of lies were at stake, lawsuits were filed.
And today, justice was served. As Rachel Maddow reported on her show tonight, the ruby red Missouri State Supreme Court voted unanimously that the results of the referendum were legally binding, and that the state hade no option but to enact the referendum.
I can’t say this often enough. Never prejudge the courts! Just look at The Big Lie. There were 61 lawsuits, some with Democratic judges, but also with Republican judges appointed by Reagan, Bush, Bush Lite, and even Trump himself. And not only did Trump go 0-61, but the Supreme Court, where he appointed three members, rebuffed his efforts twice, as well as turning his tax records over to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office!
This is even more important in state courts. Because state judges don’t have the anonymity of a national stage. But state judges still get state coverage, which will color their state legacy, the only one they are likely to have. Today’s Missouri state Supreme Court ruling was a shining example of justice over politics. Judges don’t live in a bubble, they watch TV, and they read the papers. They are well aware of social judgement on pressing issues. God loves mad dogs and Irishmen, and I have a queasy confidence that the Senate will pass enough floor rules to knock out the most pernicious state laws. But don’t sell the courts short just yet.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
I’m hoping the courts will toss the “fetal heartbeat” laws, which are based on bad science *and* bad theology. And a belief that women can’t possibly make decisions like that without outside help.
Good article, Joseph Murphy.
I do like it when the courts come down on the side of Americans. I do worry some of these trump appointees may be messing up the works for years to come on all sorts of legislation.
Murf, you seem committed to your Manchin narrative no matter what because you have not yet addressed the question I have repeatedly asked you to address. When the majority reverts to the GOP, do Dems really want to bequeath to them the lack of filibuster?
I’m not Murf, but I would like to address this because it’s a worry for me also. All politics ia a craoshoot, certainly. But it we can abolish (or even suspend) the fiibuster, we have a shot at getting the For The People Act passed, which means we have a shot at getting and keeping Democratic majorities in Congeress long enough to get things done. If we do not get the For The People Act passed, we are looking at the strong probability of not having a majority in either house (let alone both) again for the foreseeable future. Sure, getting rid of the filibister is a gamble. But it’s a gamble that looks more necessary to me every day.
What about returning to the talking filibuster? Decisions do not need to be framed as if there were only two options. The For the People Act has been analyzed by nonpartisans as flawed and overly freighted with all sorts of unnecessary provisions meant to appeal to certain factions of the coalition in an effort to keep them on board. Voting protections need to be enacted, but again the choices are not limited to the For the People Act or bust.
The pillorying of Manchin is a type of ad hominem that avoids addressing his concern about the gamble.
My parents lived in Springfield Missouri for many years and I got to know the area well…and I got to know their healthcare system well when a family member had a health crisis (that they recovered from). Here’s some context about their state Medicaid program that I think is pertinent.
To qualify for Medicaid (this was 2014), a Missourian can’t have income, and they can’t have assets worth *more than $2500.* So let me clarify this, because I physically sat with a social worker to go over this in an attempt to help an unemployed member of my parent’s church get on Medicaid.
If you pay rent of $1500 a month, and you have a savings account with the next two months’ rent, that’s $3000 in assets…you CANNOT GET MEDICAID. It’s July 23…if someone had the rent for next week, plus money for bills and insurance, plus $500 in case the car craps out…they CANNOT GET MEDICAID.
This was the worst Medicaid system I have ever seen. (I’m sure there are worse, but this was the worst I ever had direct experience with). This helps explain why Missourians, even if they are very conservative, did not want to keep their state’s horrible Medicaid policies.
And I think this more broadly speaks to how we will need to strategize and proceed in the coming years. It will be very hard to move people from GOP to Dem…once on a team, people stay on their team. However, this helps show that we CAN make progressive gains by building coalitions to pass broadly popular policies.
Why is the filibuster not simply returned to its original, intended form: continuous talking by the side blocking a bill, thus not allowing a vote? Make the Repugnicans stand up, on camera, on the public record, and state their case for not allowing the For The People Act to pass. Given that their case is purely voter suppression in order to hold power, they’d have to look like their scummy selves on TV, for all America to see.