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**JULY 4, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Will America Be a
Democracy Next July 4th?
The events of recent weeks could be an inflection point in the struggle
to save our democracy. The key word here is 'overreach.'
This Independence Day marks a pivotal, enough-is-enough moment-in the
popular reaction against the blend of Supreme Court excess, state
government overreach assaulting privacy, and revulsion at the latest
January 6th revelations about Donald Trump.
The result has been a startling shift in public opinion about Trump.
About half of all Americans now think Trump should be charged with a
crime
.
Most Republicans don't want Trump to run in 2024.
The Supreme Court has also overreached one time too many. The full power
of the backlash against the
**Dobbs**ruling will take weeks and months, as all of the secondary
effects become evident-states in the role of Orwellian inquisitors;
ob/gyn doctors having to put their anti-abortion snooping ahead of the
health of their patients; restrictions on the right to travel.
An American fundamentalist version of the Taliban is now in charge of
more than 20 state governments. Most ordinary people don't want to
live under an American Taliban.
These assaults on privacy and liberty will energize activists and also
mobilize ordinary people. Polls now show
about 60 percent of Americans oppose
**Dobbs**. About 50 percent of Democrats say they are more likely to
vote because of the ruling-but only 20 percent of Republicans.
We now have a war between the states, and also within the states, as
some cities and district attorneys in states with right-wing governments
are refusing to cooperate; and some state courts are finding that
legislative attempts to ban abortion violate state constitutions.
So the table has been set for a very different sort of midterm election,
which just might spare our country full-on fascism.
One thinks of the 1998 midterm, which was supposed to be a disaster for
Democrats. Instead, it was the rare midterm in the sixth year of a
presidency when the president's party gained seats in both houses.
Why? Because the Republicans overreached. They were obsessed with Monica
Lewinsky and the voters were sick of it.
But it will not be enough for Democrats to expect that they will win
back popular support simply by not being Republicans. They have to hang
all this lunacy around the necks of their opponents, and give voters an
affirmative reason to support them, especially on pocketbook issues
where Republicans have been destroying the life chances of ordinary
people even as they restrict personal liberties.
So far, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and too much of the
party leadership are a long way from seizing the moment. But other
candidates can seize it. If they do, and Biden responds to the
increasing demands to act like more of a leader in this crisis, we may
yet have a July 4th to celebrate next year and the years after.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Supreme Court Stages a Coup Against Government Regulation
And they endanger the planet in the process. BY MILES MOGULESCU
Fourth of July Flight Cancellation Hell
It's likely to be even worse than Memorial Day weekend, when
fraudulent staffing levels caused 2,800 flights to be canceled. BY
ROBERT KUTTNER
The Meaning of America Today
A July 4 reading list from our archive BY PROSPECT STAFF
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