The Corpuscle

I've taken the liberty, since it's my blog and everything, of promoting one of my own comments to a separate blog entry. I'm too lazy to rewrite it, so I'll just tell you it's in reference to this earlier post of mine, and in reply to a comment by Avedon:

I think it's quite possible that an anti-choice, anti-civil-liberties, anti-separation of church and state, hard right conservative will ultimately replace O'Connor. You'll note that I'm not predicting what the outcome will be with regard to the seat. I'm predicting that it will be the beginning of the end of the domination of the Texas GOP.

I regret to say that my prediction will probably be made more certain by a hard-right conservative taking the seat. A court that repeatedly offends the sensibilities of the nation will probably hasten the downfall of the Texas GOPers.

I'm not saying losing the seat to a hard-right conservative will somehow, in the end, be worth it. But if it does happen that way, all will not be lost. It will simply be left to the people to take back their legislatures, state and federal, from the Texas GOP wing of the Republican party. And, in fact, I think they will do it. Especially if a hard-right Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

I think there has been a tendency since, I dunno, Brown v. Board of Ed. for the left to look upon the courts as a variety of Philosopher Kings. "The people are stupid so thank gawd we have these Philosopher Kings saving us from them".

As long as these Philosopher Kings in black robes ruled for civil rights and so forth, these Kings were acceptable. After all, it's a lot easier living under the rule of an enlightened Philosopher King than it is having to go through all the mess of participating in your democracy.

But as the hard-right will tell you, Philosopher Kings can go sour on you. Their rulings can start stinking up the joint as they have lately, and as they will increasingly, if the Supreme Court goes hard right. When that happens, it's time to turn away from them. It's time to turn back to the genuinely democratic branch of our government. It's time to pit the tyranny of the majority against the rule of the Philosopher Kings.

In that battle -- assuming it remains within the bounds of the Constitution -- the will of the people will always emerge triumphant. The majority can always exercise its tyranny over the Philosopher Kings -- up to and including, if necessary, removing the Philosopher Kings from their thrones. The hard-right fantasizes about it, but of course the people wouldn't really stand for it over messes like Schiavo, etc. If the Philosopher Kings overturn Roe v. Wade, however, I think it will be a different story.

If the majority will not stand for choice being taken away from women, then women will continue to have choice. The Philosopher Kings have failed us in this, as evidenced by the unavailability of abortion in many areas of this country. It is time for the people to speak again, through their legislatures. The biggest problem is not hanging on to a women's right to choose. The biggest problem is getting the people over their reliance on the heretofore, but-now-no-more, enlightened rule of their Philosopher Kings.

It may be time for the left to take advantage of the increasingly anti-liberty nature of our Philosopher Kings. It may be time for the left to start using the rulings of the hard-right courts to turn the eyes of the Republic away from its Philosopher Kings and back toward the potential for (enlightened, one hopes) tyranny that they, themselves, hold in their own hands.

In short, I don't see the problem with taking the battle back into the legislatures if we have to. Except that it's a pain in the ass, of course. To be honest, it is easier to live under an Enlightened Philosopher King. Until he goes bad on you, of course. So I dunno... maybe this the God of Democracy's way of telling the people they have to start paying attention and participating again.