Conservative Lullabye

The Theocons and their allies are pushing the idea that liberals are overreacting to the Alito nomination. The on-all-fours NYT said that "Overturning Roe would not make abortion illegal but would leave the question in the hands of states."

Drew at the Jawa Report develops this idea further. He argues that 1) it is unlikely that a case finding a new way to overturn Roe could be developed, 2) that Alito's vote would still leave it 5-4 in favor of Roe, and 3) that even if Roe were overturned, the voters would then have an opportunity to vote for abortion rights (or not) as they choose.

My responses are threefold

1) There are already lots of state laws out there so restricting Roe that were they upheld, Roe would be de facto overturned anyway

2) Are you really going to trust Anthony Kennedy to defend a woman's right to choose?

3) Sorry, but we don't put civil liberties up for votes. The whole point of rights is that they are there to protect the minority against majority discrimination. Asking the voters to choose to restrict their own prerogative to punish people they don't like is a self-defeating proposition. Heck, if you put the Bill of Rights up for a vote, it would probably lose! And do you think that if Roe were overturned, the conservative-dominated Congress would not immediately start restricting or banning abortion rights? Puh-lease.

Let's not pretend what this is about. Alito is allied to the movement that wants to end abortion rights. If he gets on the Court, he will do everything in his power to make that happen. As such, he cannot be allowed onto the Court. Period.

P.S. This is really funny.