The Left's Ragnarok

Shannen Coffin forcefully puts forth a proposition I've long maintained in this space---that the upcoming SCOTUS battle is the last stand for the Left in America:

Don't look now, but the sky is falling. At least that's what the liberal interest groups that have mobilized this week in preparation for the battle over Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement to the Supreme Court would have you believe. Within minutes of the announcement of O'Connor's retirement, the dinosaurs of the Left took to the airwaves to attempt to frame the debate. Planned Parenthood cried that "women's health and safety [are] on the line." People for the American Way shrieked that our "very national identity hangs in the balance." Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, declared "a state of emergency for women's rights." Nan Aron, of left wing Alliance for Justice, spelled out what was to come: "a fight that will shape our lives for decades."

All of the breathless talk was evidence of just how far the Far Left have slipped. Last year, Moveon.org threw millions of billionaire financier George Soros's dollars toward TV, radio, and Internet ad buys in the hopes of buying the White House, but instead cried in its collective chardonnay as President Bush retained his presidency by a wider margin than in 2000, a Republican Senate grew more Republican, and its candidate, John Kerry, became the butt of late-night jokes. The heyday of Bill Clinton's first term, where Democrats, for a short time, controlled both houses of Congress and 1600 Pennsylvania is long behind them. In the balmy summer of Washington, D.C., it is instead the frigid winter of liberal discontent.

So what is left for the Left? The Court. More than any other time in our history, the gears of liberal social activism no longer turn beneath the dome of the United States Capitol, but have moved a few hundred yards across the street to the United States Supreme Court. Liberal groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the National Abortion Federation, well aware that the electorate is not solidly (if at all) behind their agenda, have turned to the Courts to advance their mission. Every time the people of the country speak through their legislatures on the hot-button issues of the day — abortion, homosexual rights, affirmative action, you name it — the army of lawyers of the Left line up at the courthouse steps to put a stop to the will of the people. Thus, for instance, moments after George W. Bush put presidential pen to congressional paper in signing the federal ban on partial-birth abortion in 2003, three judges, acting on the requests of these three liberal interest groups, enjoined the act from ever becoming law. What took hundreds of legislators years to pass, three unelected judges stopped cold in minutes. The Courts — and especially the nine seats on the United States Supreme Court — are as critical to the liberal game plan as they have ever been. Unlike the conservative movement that seeks to limit the now pervasive influence of the Supreme Court in our daily lives, liberal activist groups need the Court. Their success in changing social norms, their access to bank accounts in the Hamptons and Hollywood, their very existence — all depend on their ability to control its makeup.

Now, there is a fallback plan when Bush gets his nominees (as he will)---the Kelo decision empowers local governments to wreak all sorts of havoc, so we may see Democrats scurrying to make Tip O'Neill's dictum "all politics is local" live again.