In Washington, slim Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress elected by strong popular majorities of American voters are gearing up to act on the plans of a Democratic president who got 74 more electoral votes than his rival and 7 million human votes. As they do, Republicans who sit firmly in the minority — and who for the most part refuse to take part in negotiations — are set to caterwaul about the tyranny of a process that doesn’t let them get their way.
The temper tantrums are rich given that we remain a country of states, in which legislatures in capitals from Albany to Tallahassee to Austin to Sacramento write most of the laws that Americans live under (and, under poisonous partisan gerrymandering, draw most of the absurdly sliced-and-diced districts by which voters send people to the U.S. Capitol). In 30 states, Republicans control the entire legislature. Democrats rule the roost in just 18, and two are split.
Wednesday, as a conservative-dominated Supreme Court chose not to act on an emergency petition, Texas began enforcing the nation’s strictest abortion prohibition — a law that seems sure to violate the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade safeguarding a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, as well as its 1992 successor, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey.
It is henceforth illegal for anyone in the Lone Star State to perform an abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which is to say as early as 5-1/2 weeks after conception. And rather than government enforcing the prohibition, private vigilantes will: The statute empowers private citizens to sue providers and anyone who “aids or abets” such an abortion, awarding those who win such lawsuits at least $10,000.
Meanwhile, Texas’ Republican-controlled legislaturee just rolled back many voting innovations that made it easier for people, especially people of color, to cast ballots. (No, it’s not a new Jim Crow — that’s irresponsible rhetoric — but it is a bad bill.)
If there’s tyranny in America, it’s not in Washington.
