So now, in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court has clarified the landscape of contemporary America. Corporations, originally just a fictitious legal "person" created for purposes of containing liability, are now supernatural entities with the traditional protections of corporations, but also with the rights of individuals to buy elections (remember, per Justice Roberts, it isn't a bribe if you spend it before Election Day) and the rights of individuals to inflict as much religion on the public as you can get away with, especially if you can do so with a "captive audience" such as your employees. And women? They don't even have the right to control their own health decisions. They don't even have the right to a "buffer zone" to help them implement those decisions--even though the Court itself feels the need to grant one for itself.
This demonstrates that the Court, despite having three female members, possesses an institutional terror of women. And how have they responded? With a series of decisions that have the practical effect of advancing institutional power over individual power. Contrary to the ridiculous rhetoric from the right celebrating the Hobby Lobby decision as a victory for religious freedom, nothing could be further from the truth. Hobby Lobby takes all of us further down the slippery slope that leads us, at its bottom to a nation where for-profit and non-profit Corporate America controls all of America. And at that bottom, "limited" government is very limited indeed--to serving as a weapon that Corporate America can use against all of us.
How did we get here? Putting it simply, by believing the conservative lies about their advocacy of "limited government. By translating that belief into thirty years of voting for the GOP's vision of "limited government," despite massive and obvious evidence that this vision has always been a fraud. By doing so not as a matter of principle, but as a matter of convenience--because, as history teaches us (if we're willing to learn), it is easier for humans to believe than it is to think. This is why, as I have written previously, we have traditionally been a nation of suckers. Unfortunately, if a nation is dominated long enough by suckers, it allows the bullies to move in, set up shop, and eventually take over completely.
And turn that nation into a nation of bullies. Which, sadly is what we are today.
Perhaps you are sitting around on this holiday weekend consoling yourself with the thought that "surely, this can't get worse." Or, worse, the thought that "well, it doesn't directly affect me, so why should I worry about it?" Or, worse still, ultimately shrug and say "what can I do?"
Here are your answer: Yes, it can get worse, unless you do something about it because, if you don't, it will affect you. Corporate America isn't interested in your freedom. It doesn't see you as a person. It certainly doesn't see you as having any rights. It sees you as existing only for it. We, the People, have managed to do something that, according to philosophers, God is unable to do--build a boulder bigger than ourselves. And that boulder is Corporate America.
Keeping the U.S. Senate out of Republican hands has never been more important than it is now. And it is far more possible to accomplish this than the polls and the current punditry might indicate. There is an outrage level about Hobby Lobby on the left that equals and may even exceed the right-wing anger over Roe v. Wade. Even religious voices are denouncing the decision, as well they should, since religion traditionally has found its strongest home in the individual consciousness now threatened. I have never been more confident that this outrage is going to translate into organizing and voting in November. Especially considering the current lack of public confidence in the Court.
Don't be the person they come for when there is no one to stand for you. Stand for others first. Organize and vote with progressives, even if you are not one. There is no safety for you in the world the Supreme Court is creating. A nation of bullies is a nation that always seeks new victims--even those who consider themselves allies.
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