Ginsburg lost her race against time, and the country will keep losing for decades to come

 

I was just as disturbed for the future as many were after news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg died yesterday, although to be honest I was never as impressed with her as her super-fans were, because I knew her “liberalism” was a contrarian function of her radical feminism. I suspect that her tiny stature--5-1 and less than 100 pounds--effected how people viewed her and how she viewed the world, from the standpoint of a “victim.” Still, it was this “quality” that insured that she was a virtual “lock” for providing a vote contrary to the conservative wing of the court.  

Ginsburg was not Bill Clinton’s first choice to replace Byron White. He was so set on then New York Gov. Mario Cuomo that he offered him the appointment twice. But Cuomo eventually declined, both times. Stephen Breyer was under strong consideration, except that Clinton had second thoughts in regard to his “soul”--ironic, since he would then nominate Breyer to replace Harry Blackmun, who like White voluntarily retired from the bench. Ginsburg was then selected as the “sexy” choice (a term she personally wouldn’t have liked) because Clinton decided it would help the Democratic Party to have its own woman on the bench, after Ronald Reagan had made the “historic” move of installing the first woman on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor.

Maybe I’m just being cynical of an administration that while it supported the Violence Against Women Act, it signed into the law the Defense of Marriage Act, The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act--the latter part which instituted the “three strikes” provision that treated non-violent pot smokers no better than murderers--and the The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which dramatically reduced the number of people eligible for anti-poverty benefits,

Then there was The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which was as inhumane as what the current administration is doing (but just didn’t publicize it), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (which ended the Glass-Steagal Act) and The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000--laws that would do much to bring about the 2007-2008 financial crash. While the Clinton administration (and especially Hillary Clinton) played hard to the gender political wing of the Democratic party, to all other constituencies Clinton was a conservative through-and-through. But the Clintons certainly talked a good game, and it is not without an extreme sense of irony that Bill Clinton was called the first “black” president by his most blinded black supporters.

Ginsburg was 60 years old when she became a justice on the court. She always appeared frail, which she compensated for by being a fiery defender of causes contrary to those supported by the right-wing of the court. Her medical history makes one wonder not just how she lasted 27 years on the bench, but why she chose to stay on as long as she did. Just six years after she was confirmed as justice, Ginsburg was diagnosed with and treated for colon cancer. In 2009 she was treated for pancreatic cancer. In 2014, she had a stent (a tiny tube) inserted in a clogged artery. In 2012 she “hurt” two ribs, and in 2018 she had a fall in her office in which she suffered three broken ribs. Also in 2018 she had two cancerous nodules removed from a lung.

In 2019 she had radiation therapy for a return of the pancreatic cancer, and was briefly was hospitalized for a condition that required treatment with intravenous antibiotics and fluids. Earlier this year she claimed to be “cancer free.” This past May she was treated for a gallbladder stone. Then in July she had a stent in the tube connecting her liver with pancreas replaced. She died of metastatic pancreatic cancer, meaning it was a stage four cancer and virtually untreatable.

Ginsburg knew her health situation was not good by the time of Barack Obama’s second term. She was in her 80s, and had been on the bench for over 20 years, yet she chose not to retire in order to give Obama the opportunity or the time to replace her with a reliably progressive vote on the court. She had said that she intended to retire when Hillary Clinton was elected, but like most people, she bet wrong, and spent the whole of the Trump administration in and out of hospitals in the hope she would live long enough to outlast Trump’s presidency.

Unfortunately Ginsburg lost her race against time, if indeed Trump is a one-term president. The country will lose too, if Republicans in the Senate prove once again that they are first-class hypocrites. Mitch McConnell refused to allow Obama to replace a conservative justice with a liberal until after the 2016 election, and he has already stated he intends to have a vote on a Trump-appointed nominee to replace a liberal justice with a conservative one just weeks before the 2020 election--especially if the Democrats win both the White House and control of the U.S. Senate.

There is no two-ways about it: If the another conservative is confirmed for the Supreme Court, it will be safely in the right’s corner for decades to come. The only “hope” now is that there will be two “swing” justices on the court, those for whom the obvious extreme far-right right views of the other justices is too much even for them to put their names on in concurrence. Case in point is the upcoming ruling on the ACA; there is already indications that Trump is going to nominate someone who is strongly against it, again just another indication of his lies about supporting coverage for people with preexisting conditions. This is about people, not ideology, and now it seems that the latter has won.