In no uncertain terms: “You are not above the law.” The gavel of justice came down on Scott (a King without a country) Walker and his court of Republican pawns on Thursday. They were denied attempts to limit the authority of what the newly elected Governor Tony Evers could do after yanking off Walkers crown.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson ruled that the lame-duck legislation signed in December by Walker had violated injunctions issued by Peterson in 2016 against previous GOP moves to limit early voting. John Nichols reporting can be read in its entirety on The Nation; he is The Nations national-affairs correspondent.
Eric Holder launched the National Redistricting Foundation after leaving office and he provided support for the challenge to the new law; I watched him on one of my late night shows when he announced what he was going to do as he was not going to sit idly by while rotten Republicans tried to gerrymander power in perpetuity.
I’ve been paying so much attention to every bombastic blurb the orange buffoon blurts out that I forgot to remember that we are not alone in our angst; that there are many experienced, intelligent, altruistic men and women of conscience who are emboldened to keep a methodical pace ahead of the whirlwind from the 45th.
Is Eric Holder perfect? No. I wanted him to dry clean Wall St’s CEO’s who allowed people to get into homes they knew they couldn’t afford that almost foreclosure America. I have a hard time accepting “too big to fail” and will argue to the moon and back against applying that to a POTUS… But I digress.
I am emboldened by yesterday’s ruling because it reminds me that we have some heavy-hitters on our team. The fight for America’s survival has just begun, really, because it took someone like tRump to wake us up and pay attention. Democracy is a verb; it requires action. We didn’t get to where we are today by accident; it’s by design, put in place by a cabal of men (way before women could even vote) who knew how to manipulate a vulnerable system of which success depended on fear and people apathetic to the rules and mechanics of government. (Look up PNAC- Progress for a New American Century.) The 45th knows how to exploit and con; a strength that is also his weakness. I still think he will exploit himself out of office; it is to our great salvation that someone like Scott Walker didn’t come before Donald Trump. Yet in every great story, every Shakespearean chapter and every Game of Thrones plot, there lurks an evil entity ready to attack when someone isn’t looking.
So it is our job to keep all eyes on the ball. Eric Holder knows who and what the People are up against and he needs us to not give up, because we're on the same team. I have to believe that a moral turpitude in the conscience of our military leaders and stoic allegiance to country over party is the norm, not the exception. I have to have faith that the people whom we never hear from because their work is covert, do that because they believe in “truth, justice and the American way.” I wish I could erase the chapters in American history that hurt people for the color of their skin, whom they loved or how they worshipped, if at all, but because of good people fighting the good fight- we are better than we were and still standing.
I know some people refuse to give "old-school" Republicans credence for speaking out against the 45th and Mitch McConnell’s cabal because they didn't speak out against them until now, but that thinking is neit- we need all hands on deck. A lack of capitulation, unlike the cowardly senators in the GOP, are more people against a ridiculous wall; against separating children from parents; against turning us into the Kremlin of the West. Just because the insanity of Hannity is loud and tRump’s base is vitriolic and refuses to see that their reality king is a con, doesn't mean we have a rumps chance to prevail. There are good people doing good things.
As Rachel Maddow constantly reminds me: “Pay attention to what they're doing, not to just what they're saying."