I first posted a draft of this diary
nearly a year ago. At the time, it seemed like hyperbole, even to me. The thing drew a grand total of 4 comments. But every passing day makes what I had to say back then seem mild.
What the Republicans are after is nothing less than a coup. We usually think of that term as applying to unlawfully taking over the White House (but then, they already managed that, didn't they?). But the United States government is more than the executive branch. Power is split into three equal parts. What the Republicans are staging is a coup of the judicial branch, undermining the authority of judges and setting the stage for a baseline realignment of our government. If they are successful, it will be the biggest change in our nation's history. Bigger that all the programs of the New Deal put together. Bigger than the restructuring of the federal government during the Civil War.
In a very real sense, if the Republicans win out in this scheme, this will no longer be the United States of America.
See, Republicans are against the Law.
Not in the sense that being a Republican is illegal (though maybe we could get up a petition drive). Republicans are against the law in that they are opposed to it. Opposed to the letter of the law, opposed to the spirit of the law, opposed to the whole judicial branch of government.
When Republicans rave, as they often do, against activist judges, what they are really attacking is the idea of the judicial system as a co-equal branch of federal or state government. When they go after trial lawyers, it's not because they think lawyers are really damaging the country's ability to do business, it's because lawyers are upholding the law. And Republicans hate the law. Not for current costs, but because it restrains them from taking the actions they'd like to take were the law not in the way.
Bush is particularly guilty of attacking the judicial branch. As a governor, he supported numerous laws cutting back on the ability of Texans to redress corporate malfeasance. As president, he's done his best to extend executive privilege into areas where it had never been held before, including using this (non-constitutional) power to withhold documents from committees investigating 9/11 and the Iraq invasion. In short, he has done more to extend the power of the executive, and deflate the judicial branch than any president in history. This is capped by the 2004 court decision in the case of Cheney's energy papers. It may seem like a small decision - a frustration because we can't see who chatted up Cheney, but no great shakes - but the court decision undermines the whole tradition of judicial review and grants the executive the ability to withhold documents on domestic policy without even invoking privilege.
The other side of the war on the law comes in the fight for tort reform. A fight strictly meant to restrain citizen's rights as compared to business. Bush has lead the charge for tort reform, but he's not alone in this battle. In fact, the Republicans consider the tort reform legislation so important that Bill Frist has warned against making any amendments to be sure they can get quick passage. The way they phrase it, this bill is practically part of the war on terror. Last time through, it failed to overcome a Democratic filibuster by a single vote. This time, the Republicans are hoping to either pass the bill, or have it as a club to bash Democrats come the fall. (It should be noted that none of the Texas laws, or his stance against "junk" lawsuits, kept Bush from filing his own law suit against Enterprise Rent-A-Car seeking damage for "pain and suffering" and "mental anguish.")
Republicans would have you think that this bill is needed to keep doctors practicing in Hometown, USA, and to keep Mom & Pop Inc. from falling to the odious threat of "junk" lawsuits. In truth, the cost of lawsuits is a tiny fraction of the cost of doing business. It's a small fraction of the cost of insurance, too, but the insurance companies don't let that stop them for blaming lawyers for the huge increases in rates. Insurance companies are intent on punishing states that don't have tort ceilings by imposing outrageous tolls. They hope people will see their local doctor buckling under the payments, make the connection to lawsuits, and never notice that it's the insurance company actually pocketing those dollars. They want sob stories like the ones mentioned here in which family doctors are forced to quit delivering babies because of bad old lawyers. Without mentioning that it's not lawyers who set the insurance rates, or lawyers who have been gathering in the profits on overpriced insurance.
Republicans want tort reform not for what it would save, but for what it would allow. Freed from any threat of meaningful discipline, the door would be wide open for corporations to operate in any way they see fit. Want to know what that would look like? I suggest a quick re-read of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
Now Republicans have grafted thier usual smokescreen of "upholding morality" onto their attack on the law. This is an easy one, because the law defends equality and fairness, two things that the Republicans don't care for one bit. Their anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-rights, anti-poor agenda is even more easily focused on the judicial branch than it is on Democrats.
Boys and girls, this is the big one. If we lose this fight, there will be no other.