Eric Alterman, whom I occasionally disagree with on some issues, makes as clear as day what our jobs in the political world
should be (emphasis mine):
Anyway, the Roberts nomination seems to mean we should plan on saying goodbye to thirty-two years of life under "Roe," which is not entirely a bad thing, even for pro-choice advocates. After all, Bush did terrific with unmarried women without college educations. It would be helpful, politically (and democratically) for them to learn just what it was they were voting for. There's a much longer argument to be made here, about how judicially-created and enforced liberalism has weakened its cause and alienated its potential supporters while not gaining terribly much in real world terms.
If you don't entirely get where I'm going, check out what this fellow diarist wrote earlier today:
In the last election, the Republicans used gay marriage as a wedge issue that appealed to the rightwing extreme base. The Democrats can do the same in 2006 by offering an amendment to state constitutions that the right of a woman to choose is a fundamental right. Depending which poll you read, a clear majority of Americans support the right to choose, usually with some restrictions. The Democrats can do this at the state level to great effect.
Whether or not that will actually work remains to be seen, but regardless, the point is quite clear:
It's time to move true Democratic (including Liberal) values away from the judicial system and into the law books of our country.
I agree with Eric that many of the rights we have grown to love and hold dear have not been as a result of laws passed by Congress, but by the opinions of judges in the High Court and the lower-level courts. Republicans, however shrill they were when Roe was established, decided to turn to the law and positions of power to establish their agenda and supremecy. As of now, it has worked brilliantly, with Republicans in charge of our Federal Government for 4+ years, the federal and appellate courts stacked with Republican appointees, and now, the last bastion of liberalism is about to be removed - the Supreme Court.
This is why Dean's Fifty States strategy is so important and crucial, not just in taking back the White House and Congress, or in taking back the state legislatures and governorships, but in establishing the positions of power that create the laws and position the judiciary to rule in favor of those laws. Republicans did that in the 80s and 90s, and now, regardless of how morally or criminally corrupt they are now, Republicans are poised to have their laws and beliefs engrained in our law books and judicial decisions for the foreseeable future.
The sooner we accept that notion, the better, for then we will be able to lay the seeds of change locally and let it build gradually. The Republicans of today relied on wedge issues to achieve the power they currently have. Now that they are forced to defend a traitor who helped make them who they are, our own wedge issues can be easily established in local elections and amendments. It's all in how you frame the message.
Dean's ascension to DNC Chair could not have come at a better time. Dean knows how to build that message from the ground up, and it is up to us to do the same. In the end, we will have to do what the Republicans have done for the last 30 years: build a network that gives us the power to take the country back, and put the law pen in our hands to write for the next generation, and possibly future generations to come.
To whine and moan about Roberts being confirmed or about the Supreme Court moving to the right is irrelevant now. As McCain says, "Elections have consequences," and the consequences will hit home on many Americans - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but they will undoubtedly hit, and hit hard. Our job is to now position the American people to understand exactly what they have to lose (and have lost) under this party, and tell them why they should give us a chance to make it right. It begins where our focus should now be - in the local amendments and elections, the state legislatures, and lower judiciary.