Persecution narratives are extremely powerful

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos wrote about the latest nonsense out of the mouth of Justice Alito. He was responding to the Senate Judiciary Committee approving a bill requiring the Supreme Court adopt a code of ethics. He said in a Wall Street Journal interview, “No provision in the Constitution gives [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.” Of course, Democrats were quick to push back. Sen. Chris Murphy said on CNN, “In fact, from the very beginning, Congress has set those rules.” And Sen. Richard Blumenthal tweeted, “No Congressional authority over the Supreme Court—is among the most audacious, absurd, and arrogant of recent Alito misstatements.” Rep. Ritchie Torres commented that Congress can set the Court’s number of seats and its budget and can’t demand a code of ethics? That’s not logical. McCarter also quoted Article III Section 2 of the Constitution: In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. University of Virginia Law Professor Amanda Frost explained it well in her testimony before the Judiciary Committee. Here’s part of what she said:

When this Congress passes a law that says that they must recuse themselves, the judges and justices of our federal judiciary, when there are certain conflicts of interest. The justices are not free to say “that law doesn’t apply to me, I’m going to sit on that case anyway.” So what is troubling is there is an implication [by this court] … that it doesn’t think these laws bind it. I find that very confusing in light of the … long history of congressional administration of the courts.

Of course, Alito has allies. And we can guess who they are. One is David Rivkin Jr. He’s the one who interviewed Alito for the WSJ article. He’s also in deep with Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society and has a huge tax case before the court. Of course he sent a letter to the committee saying Alito is right. Concluded McCarter:

To sum up, the lawyer who will be arguing before Alito to overthrow a century’s worth of precedent and say that Congress does not have the power to levy taxes on very wealthy people is also giving Alito a soft-ball interview in which he says Congress does not have the power to regulate his behavior. Which involves undeclared luxury trips from the very rich people Rivkin says Congress can’t tax. That sounds like a very big ethical—and constitutional—problem.

In an article posted on Kos Walter Berry of the Associated Press reported that as of Monday Phoenix has gone through 31 days with the temperature topping 110F. Today Phoenix was to get up only to 108 (I don’t have news of the final numbers), breaking the streak. For a day. Then the high is to rise above 110 again. But even at 31 days Phoenix broke the previous consecutive day record by a huge 13 days. Berry also reported on many other extreme heat events across the country. In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos is a cartoon by Marc Murphy showing a person labeled “The poor” tied to a stake and around the feet are flames labeled “The rich.” Murphy added the caption:

The Wealthy - people and nations - are overwhelmingly responsible for #ClimateChange and the Poor are overwhelmingly paying its price. Which is why there is, effectively, nothing being done about it.

Just below that cartoon is one by Rick McKee. It shows a devil talking to a man mopping his head, “Just a few degrees more and it will, in fact, be hot enough for me, thanks for asking.” In an AP article posted on Kos Max Ralph wrote about the LGBTQ participants in the Women’s World Cup soccer match held in Australia and New Zealand now. There are 95 out participants, about 13% of the athletes. That’s more than double the 40 players and coaches in 2019 according to Outsports. I hear part of that is likely because there are 32 countries participating this time and only 24 last time. This time there is more visibility. Part of that is the visibility of Megan Rapinoe, star of the previous Cup and out lesbian. Part of it is also the way the athletes present themselves. On has rainbow and trans flag fingernail colors. Another has rainbow streaks in her hair. Part of it is the LGBTQ fans feel welcome. One hopes the men soon feel as free to come out. On to a post that has been hiding in my browser tabs since May 2022. In it Adrian Florido of NPR talks to white people in Buffalo who are resisting white supremacy. Yeah, this is shortly after the shooting in a Buffalo grocery store. Most of the discussion is with Erin Heaney, founder of Showing Up for Racial Justice, SURJ. White supremacist groups know that working folks are hit hard. They want to get white people to blame their troubles on black and brown people rather than the poor decisions of elected officials at the local, state, or national level (decisions usually made by white people corrupted by rich people). Heaney used to think the best thing to do when white supremacists come to town is to ignore them. She now sees it is better to challenge them and their ideas. And that can start with: These are white supremacists. Do you really want to pay attention to them? That reached Bridget Holbert, who grew up in an evangelical family. She was surprised to learn how close she was to supremacist ideas. She said:

Being raised evangelical, you know, persecution narratives are extremely powerful. It's me against the world. It's us against the world. You know, they hate us because of what we believe. But we are right. It's the same narrative for white supremacists and for evangelicals.

Yes, it is tough to go up against groups that are so well funded. The fight is asymmetrical. But in one’s local community the resistance is a more even match. Supremacists don’t speak for all white people, at least not yet. Black and brown people have been doing this sort of work for quite a while. But work also needs to be done by white people who are committed to democracy. White people are going to more readily believe other white people.