THE TALIBAN WINS A DOUBLE HEADER

We were at war in Afghanistan for twenty years.  The fight was against the Taliban. Originally, the justification was the failure of the Afghanis to control terrorist groups that threatened the safety and well-being of the United States citizenry. But even after first we beat the Taliban, and a U.S. supported government was installed, and even after we killed Usama Bin Laden, we continued to support the war against the Taliban insurgency. The cost was horrendous: 2,500 American servicemen and women, thousands of US contractors, all at the expense of billions of dollars.

Why did we continue to fight this war? Because the Taliban represented everything that we thought was evil, contrary to our laws, culture, and Constitutional values. They were religious fundamentalists, they had no notion of equality, no integrity, no judicial system that followed the rule of law. Most prominently they subjected women to the role of enslaved people. In the pre-civil war United States, not only was there no school for slaves, it was against the law to create one. Under Taliban rule, a school dedicated to teaching girls how to read was burned to the ground. Even twenty years after the US at first defeated the Taliban, only 37% of Afghani girls know how to read.

The recent anti-abortion law In Texas is right out of the Taliban handbook. Women have no control over their reproductive systems. They are slaves to male domination. What's more, Texas has eviscerated it's rule of law. Everyone, in or out of the state, has the right to sue any person who ”aids or abets" a woman who gets an abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy. The concept of “standing to sue," which is explicit in the Federal Constitution, no longer exists in the State of Texas. In Texas, it's now neighbor against neighbor.

 The new tribal Republican right is an absolute threat to our democracy. The  Big Lie, the party's vigorous effort to block any inquiry into the January 6th Capitol  insurrection, the  rash of anti-voting  new legislation, all are consistent with Taliban rule.

And perhaps most shocking, the Federal judiciary, now controlled by the Taliban wing of our judiciary, has turned its back on Texas women and on the rule or law. 

 

 The Judiciary's reaction to this Texas anti-abortion scheme, is a step too far. Despite the unambiguous unconstitutionality of the Texas statute,  both the Fifth Circuit, and more importantly, the Supreme Court, refused to interfere. And the Supremes’ did the dirty deed in the dark of night, on the stroke of midnight, on something called “the shadow docket.”– a place lacking the regular opportunities to file written or oral arguments. And all of this happened because tribal chief McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat from Obama, and put Amy Coney Barrett on the Court. Earlier, Justice Kavanagh had made a pre-confirmation promise not to disturb a woman’s freedom of choice as protected in Roe v Wade--a promise he has now broken, an offense for which we have no remedy. When Barrett and Kavanagh joined Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch on the Court, Roe was doomed.

 For sure, the judicial Talibans will argue that this decision is not permanent, and the Court will take the matter up in regular order next year, but this is legal mumbo-jumbo. They cannot walk away from the truth. They have allowed Texas to control a woman’s reproductive freedom, and in so doing so have disgraced the Court.

Let me be  clear. I believe in a woman’s right to choose.  I believe that it is morally and legally reprehensible to make laws that imprison physicians who would accommodate women who wish to terminate their pregnancies in accordance with the 50-year old Supreme Court decision in Wade. And I do understand that a minority of our population disagrees with me.

But the evil here goes well beyond the abortion issue. It is about judicial fundamentalism and tribalism shredding the rule of law. The Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court have brazenly dismissed the rule of law without legal due process. Once that virus spreads, we will become more like China than a western democracy. 

 I do believe the Texas/Supreme Court abortion outrage is so horrendous that the Democrats can be fired up to recognize what is at risk here. 2022 is the key. The Democrats must maintain the House and they must pick up three seats in the Senate (two Democrats will vote against abolishing the ancient filibuster rule by which the tribal Republican caucus can veto any Democrat-sponsored legislation. Only by abolishing the filibuster rule and adding four Justices to the Supreme Court can our democracy prevail. And I believe the American Taliban has now so completely shat upon our Constitutional democracy that enough people -- Democrats, Independents, and perhaps some sensible Republicans-- will gag at the stink and vote to fix this. The stakes are very high.

A bientot.

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