Politics is always full of irony-whether it’s a political party claiming to have “family values” while its leaders are chasing youngsters of their own sex, cheating on their spouses, or selling their public trust to the highest bidder. We see so much of it in this right-wing Republican era that it’s simply hard to know where to start.
The irony of the anti- gun control mantra that guns don’t kill people… (of course it’s the bullets that do it), to the so-called “sanctity of life” while we’re allowing mentally unstable college students to buy semi-automatic weapons and shoot up their colleagues , while at the same time sending our young men and women to a war zone to kill and be killed in another country’s thousand year old war.
And then there is Roe v. Wade—the most important civil rights legislation of the past three decades finally going down in a slow but apparently inexorable death dance with the appointments of anti-choice male justices to the
highest court in the land. But you may ask: “Where is the irony in this?”

The irony is in the fact that the Bush administration and the right-wing, ultra-conservative anti-democracy, anti-family policies that have been its shameful hallmark are finally being discredited. All the nonsense about personal responsibility and family values from the ultimate incompetent hypocrits is finally being exposed. From Alberto Gonzalez lying to congress, to Duke Cunningham selling his soul for 12 pieces of silver (along with a full coterie of Republican Congressional leaders ad nauseum).
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision, however, focuses attention on the great irony that now that the Bush Manifesto has been discredited, that democracy requires and insists upon openness and accountability, that government is a partner, not the fall-guy, that trying to inject politics for science cannot be tolerated, that detaining people for years is contrary to our Constitutional freedoms, etc. etc. the work of a court that embodies these failed concepts will continue to impact this country for years to come.
The short-sightedness, the intentional ultra-conservative agenda promoted by these right-wing appointees will likely linger for decades. The Bush failed legacy will continue in the form of decisions eviscerating women’s hard-fought reproductive rights, workers rights, environmental protections, consumer protections, middle-class protections, civil rights, human rights, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on. It will be here that the tragic and misguided policies of this anti-american mindset will continue well after Bush and his cronies are gone. This court, newly invigorated with idealogues like Roberts and Alito will join the already entrenched idealogues-Scalia and Thomas- to wreak havoc on rights and responsibilities hard-fought by American men and women since the beginning of the Republic.
We knew Roe would be undermined if Alito was confirmed to the court, so we shouldn’t be surprised. We have every right, though, to be disgusted and saddened now that this majority comprised of five MALE judges has decided that medical science can be trumped by political ideology and denying women the safest possible medical procedures when needed to protect their lives. It is, indeed a dark day in this country’s history…..as 33 young, talented and intelligent lives were snuffed out by a lunatic gunman who was able to access a deadly weapon without so much as a yawn. Of course, how many more lives were taken yesterday in Iraq? Afghanistan? The Sudan?The failures continue, and so will the legacy of this failed administration thanks to the Roberts Court.
I’ll feel feistier tomorrow and more willing to heed the call to renew our efforts to bring sanity, dignity and respect back to our country. Progressives in America just can’t be feeling very good this week. Although irony can help put things in focus, irony aside, today we really see the enormity of the havoc this administration has wrought on our country. For those of us striving for a better tomorrow–a safer, freer and more hopeful future, today just isn’t a day to celebrate.