Reply #9: There are many things we can do about fascist Supreme Court Justices...

[Peace Patriot]

Probably the quickest and easiest is to "pack the Supreme Court"--as the fascists of the FDR era called it. The Constitution does not specify the number of justices. It is up to Congress. It is therefore possible, when you have a court that has been packed by the fascist right, to add justices to balance things out. It does not require a Constitutional amendment--just a vote of Congress to expand the number of justices, and then a good President to appoint justices who will act in the public interest, with Congress confirming.

FDR initiated this strategy when the fascist Supreme Court of his era--the putrid detritus left over from the Coolidge and Hoover regimes, which had brought on the Great Depression--began declaring FDR's desperately needed New Deal programs unconstitutional. Millions of Americans were starving, homeless, out of work. The "Dust Bowl" added to the crisis, destroying many small farmers. The country was going under. So FDR proposed to Congress that they add young liberal judges to the Supreme Court, to un-paralyze the country. The fascist press immediately called him a "dictator" and were relentless in vitriolic abuse (much like our corporate press is today about Hugo Chavez in Venezuela). "Packing the Supreme Court" was perfectly legal, constitutional and certainly called for. Congress caved into the fascist pressure and the idea was tabled, but, in the meantime FDR's pressure on the Supreme Court caused one justice to change his mind about the New Deal.

Thus, Social Security was saved.

If FDR hadn't threatened the Supreme Court with "packing," we would not have Social Security today. It would have been declared unconstitutional. (Can you believe it? Unconstitutional for us to get together and create our own retirement program to prevent starvation among the elderly!)

ANYWAY, it's quick, it's easy, it's legal. Put John Edwards and John Conyers and Henry Waxman and Ralph Nader, and other kick-butt anti-fascists and anti-corporates on the Supreme Court, and see those fascist Bushite justices change their tune real fast.

Other strategies:

Term limit them. (Requires a C. amendment.)

Make their positions elected positions. Let the American people decide! (Needs C. amendment.)

Put a special prosecutor on them, to dog their every hunting party, get the goods on them (I mean, we know they're dirty as hell), spend as much money on that as the fascists spent on Monica Lewinsky, and impeach their asses.

Never, NEVER "think small" because you currently have a cowardly Congress. Ask FDR! Ask your granddad and granma! They wouldn't have Social Security if FDR and the New Dealers had only thought of what is possible in then-current circumstances. Indeed, we wouldn't have a country--if FDR hadn't thought we could defeat Adolph Hitler and Imperial Japan at the same time. America IS the impossible. Impossible is our middle name. Impossible to put men on the moon! Impossible to put labor rights into law. Impossible to enfranchise black citizens in the south. Impossible to have free public education for all children. Impossible to create the United Nations. Impossible to be kind to our enemies--Germany and Japan--and rebuild them, and give them their chance to create great democracies. Impossible to preserve vast wild areas as national parks. Impossible for every race and religion on earth to live together in one country in relative peace, with democracy providing the common ground--truly one of greatest "impossibles" in human history.

That's why I have never, ever, ever doubted that we would get our country back. It's going to be a long, difficult road, I think. But you simply can't kill the peace-loving, justice-loving, progressive spirit of the American people, no matter how hard you try. These corporate war criminals can loot us blind. They can propagandize us 24/7. They can steal our elections. They cannot defeat us. They may well have created a second "Great Depression," with their mindboggling theft of our treasuries and our every resource, including even the U.S. military. Things could get tough. We must, and we will, make the impossible possible once again.