Turning back the clock in America

This morning, I had C-Span on for the first time in quite awhile. They had Wade Henderson from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights as a guest, discussing the John Roberts confirmation hearings, for Supreme Court justice.

Mr. Henderson, an articulate and measured African-American, had some interesting and somewhat disturbing things to say about Roberts and his possible confirmation. Rather than posturing and adding ideological fuel to the debate, Henderson was a breathe of fresh air, while all the while, indicating to me that Roberts' confirmation would set the clock back in our country on civil rights, women's issues, privacy and all manner of other things many of us take for granted.

My concern about an appointment of John Roberts as Chief Justice is that he would protect the rights and freedoms of those in the ruling class, at the expense of those of us in the working classes and other Americans who are not part of the privileged caste.

Per usual, some of the right-wing trolls managed to call in and castigate Henderson, engaging in some veiled racist rhetoric that is part of their schtick. What I found particularly galling, is the ruse used by so many of the right-wing noise crowd, having the audacity to mention Martin Luther King Jr. and his vision for a society free of class, race and gender. Many, if not most, who dwell on the right side of the political spectrum, couldn't care less about what King waxed poetic about. His last days on earth were taken up with the cause and concern of trying to create a society where economic justice was paramount. I concur that the biggest threat posed by King--and ultimately what led to his murder--was his courage to broach the issue of class and economic justice and his willlingness to champion the cause of the poor and downtrodden.

Because he was able to pull together all members of the underclasses, irrespective of race, he posed a tremendous threat to the ruling class and the propertied gentry in America. As has been common throughout our history, those who are capable of waking the slumbering masses must be exterminated in order to maintain the propaganda of power in our land.

I find it particularly galling that once again, the Roberts' confirmation process once more rubs our noses in the detritus of lies that this administration leaves in its wake. Claiming a moral superiority that is nothing but rampant hypocrisy, the Bush administration continually insults the 50 percent in our country that recognizes them for what they are--elitists, patricians and sociopathic liars who would have been tossed out into the street, or worse, in a different time. Instead, our apathetic lives of affluence leave us to chatter like magpies, but do little else to reclaim our country to which we are rightful heirs.