The content in the two constitution workbooks is thorough. Personally, if the opportunity to revise educational objectives ever comes around again, I hope this nation considers doubling the history and social studies requirement, especially with regard to the constitution and its interpretation. But even with the skills we give our eighth graders now, they can figure out that this current Supreme Court doesn't follow the rules.
I started teaching Constitution and American History to eighth graders, and to high school students, in 1979. I've been through the curriculum changes that have been necessary as court rulings were made interpreting the law, and I've been in multiple class discussions where students were following these developments as well, debating the "constitutionality" not only of laws passed by Congress, but of the rulings of the Supreme Court. And I've noticed, just as many of my students have also noticed, that the Supreme Court, along with the federal judiciary, has moved into much more partisan territory. It wasn't common, even back in the 70's when I was in school, to identify Supreme Court justices with the party of the President who appointed them. Now, their votes follow the party line.
And the current Roberts court will go down in history as the most partisan, and the most corrupt.
Call it a White, Chritian Nationalist Agenda, Setting Up the Development of Project 2025
The influence of the Heritage Foundation and the agenda of white, Christian nationalists has been behind the last three Supreme Court appointments made by a Republican President. All three of Trump's appointees were on their list at some point, and it was a favor he returned to them in exchange for their support at the ballot box. And all three of them, in their testimony before Congress, as they campaigned to be confirmed, lied.
Well, deception and dishonesty is a core value of white, Christian nationalists, and of Trump. And it is also a core value of six of the nine members of the Supreme Court.
So how is it possible for this constitutionally established republic to function as the Constitution directs, when the judicial branch has become as partisan as Congress? The answer to that question is simple.
It can't.
But that's exactly what the Christian nationalists want. They don't want a government of, by, and for the people, and they certainly don't want one that represents the will of the people. They are setting it up to be their tool for control. And the Supreme Court, according to one of their chief prophets who advocated for Republicans to make the most radical, unconstitutional judicial appointments they could find, Rush Limbaugh, saw this as the way to get around the dilemna they face when it comes to elections, which they lose as often as they win.
Limbaugh pushed Republicans to take advantage of Democrats and their lack of emphasis on control of state legislatures, and to make the most partisan judicial appointments possible, to lifetime positions, when they had the power to do so. Democrats, on the other hand, choose candidates who tend to be non-partisan, and more fair in their ruling on the law, rather than on partisan principle. The Republican court appointees almost never find themselves in agreement with a ruling made by those appointed by Democrats, while the latter rule on the law, and are in agreement with their colleagues more often than not.
Democrats Never Seemed to Be Able to Wrap Their Minds Around This Happening
The push to make the federal courts tilted toward GOP politics started with Reagan. The original litmus test was how a particular judiciary candidate would rule on abortion. But it has gone way beyond that, at this point. We've had some of the most unconstitutional, un-American rulings come out of recent Supreme Courts, and they have all done their part to weaken the results of national elections and take away from the power of the legislative branch, especially to keep Democrats out.
The whole election process has been tainted and tilted to the right by the Citizens United ruling, which now permits the billionaires who hold 99% of this country's wealth to control its elections. And this ridiculous and completely unconstitutional ruling did its job, allowing Elon Musk to become one of the first to buy influence with the national government for the purpose of making himself even richer than he already is. Look into what he's done, and where his money has come from. Some of it came out of my pocket, and yours.
Perhaps the most unbelievably unconstitutional ruling from this court, one that goes against every American value when it comes to the rule of law, is the one giving a sitting President immunity from prosecution for any crime that he or she may have committed while performing their duties. This completely violates the whole principle of the balance of power, written in by the founders, because of their disdain for Kings, and their conclusion that all men are equal under the law.
If these six Republican appointed justices were in my eighth grade Constitution class, they'd get an F for their lack of understanding of the principles upon which the Constitution was based.
So why, when the opportunity presented itself, in 2020, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, did they not show some political savvy, and exhibit some bold risk taking in their politics that would have prevented the nightmare we are now forced to endure from occurring? The power was there to amend the judiciary act, create five, or six, or eight, new seats on the Supreme Court, and give those appointments to President Biden. Without playing politics, he could have appointed younger, more liberal justices who would outlast the current duds, and who would have, in short order, overturned Citizens United, the immunity ruling, saved Roe, and fast-tracked Trump's insurrection and documents theft trials into a verdict and prison time long before the 2024 election rolled around.
If it's not apparent, this is one of my chief frustrations with Democratic party leadership right now. They just don't seem to get it, that the Republicans are no longer interested in compromise, it is winner take all, and when they get the power, they are going to do things exactly like this, in order to make sure it can't be taken away while they turn the United States into a Christian nationalist dictatorship.
The Heritage Foundation and their Republican allies are now just six states away from their goal of calling a constitutional convention, and changing the constitution to get what they want, a billionaire-controlled oligarchy. Democrats don't even seem to be aware, in their individual, isolated, turf-protecting fund-raising appeals, that this is happening, or that efforts are underway to make sure Democrats don't get a mid-term advantage in the Congress, while the orange turd is still in the White House.
And most Americans won't take this seriously.
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