As the news of Trump’s demonization of public education crushes us like a wave…
As the crafting of false analogies between “left-wing indoctrination” and social unrest leave us stunned…
As we read the words “toxic propaganda” in reference to the The New York Times’ 1619 Project, a Pulitzer prize-winning curriculum about slavery…
As my neighbors who call themselves “Arizona Republicans for Biden” wake to find their yard-signs defaced…
Amidst this, we discover that we have lost one of the greatest voices of our democracy, one of our nation’s most ethical compasses. Suddenly, slogans like “You Can’t have the Truth, Without Ruth” become more than fodder for t-shirts and bumper stickers.
But we already felt truth-less, without a life raft, like we were watching a horror film in which the denigration of the constitution and the obliteration of our first amendment rights could occur at the whim of a president who doesn’t seem to understand the constitutional parameters of an executive order.
In other words, we should all be mourning and fearing the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
RBG touched the nation by thwarting “the categorical exclusion of women from extraordinary educational opportunit[ies] afforded men” (1996). She transcended the divisiveness of “the aisle.” She worked harder and longer than most Americans ever could or would.
As we face the mortality of the rights and principles she fought for, I can’t help but view RBG’s passing, a mere two months before the election, as yet another sign of demise.
I hope that I’m wrong, but if I’m not, her absence may usher in a more notorious (and nefarious) era than we ever imagined, and that isn’t the kind of country that I want to be a citizen of.
RD is the founding editor of TRR.
Artwork by Kurt Viers.
The Revolution (Relaunch) 