The bright side, well, sort of...

[stevietheman]

1) A good number of Democrats actually did make a brave fight on behalf of the American people to try and stop Alito. I was concerned a week ago there wouldn't even be a fight. I could tell by the words of Kerry and Kennedy that the fight was real. But alas, one cannot win every fight. But at least the fight was attempted. And that is something to cheer about.

2) We should remember that the Supreme Court deals with "Constitutional edge issues", not "democratically decided issues" (at least, for the most part). In other words, democracy and culture decides, for the most part, how most of us live on a day to day basis in this country. That's why we progressives must begin to rely more on legislative victories for our causes, as the judiciary becomes more hostile on the edge issues. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, then we naturally must focus on making it the law of the land in as many states as we can muster. If corporations do things that damage employees or the environment, then we gang up on them and force them out of business (heck, if the courts won't punish them, WE WILL). And so on... we the people still have a lot of power to effect change, even if the Supremes won't help us out.

3) The archconservatives now will hold four seats on the Supreme Court -- still not a majority. There's even been speculation that we'll see Anthony Kennedy become more centrist, especially if the Radical Right 4 go too far to the extreme on various matters. I suspect that while Alito's confirmation is a set-back, it's also not the end-game, nor is it our eternal defeat. We still got game.

Yeah, I'm disappointed. But "when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade." How that translates to our situation is that we all need to reconcentrate on state and local-level issues, and take back our politics brick by brick by brick.

We can do it. I know we can.

On edit:

4) Bush's numbers are still in the toilet (re: today's NBC/WSJ poll). This is added as a BONUS. Enjoy. :)

[applegrove]

1. Thanks.

[stevietheman]

2. self-kick n/t

n/t