The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

To The Eagle:

Before launching into a recent screed advocating one- party rule, a recent letter writer blithely dismissed the implications of a hasty appointment of an ultra-conservative to the Supreme Court bench, claiming it just doesn’t matter.

It does. Here’s why.

In the book "Injustices," Ian Millhiser wrote, “The Supreme Court has a long history of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. Its decisions have consistently favored the moneyed and powerful. The court helped shape a nation where children toiled in coal mines, Americans could be forced into camps because of their race and women could be sterilized against their will by state law. The court was the midwife of Jim Crow, the right hand of union busters, and the dead hand of the Confederacy.

Nor is the modern court a vast improvement, shredding voter’s rights and allowing elections to be put up for corporate sale. The Supreme Court has seized power for itself that rightfully belongs to the people's elected representatives. It has bent the arc of American history away from justice.” Trump has politically polluted the Dept. Of Justice. He has just made an objectionable appointment to the Supreme Court. The confirmation process should not begin until after the impending election contest.

Giving Americans more ways to vote and more time to vote, as well as providing more time for their votes to be counted, is not disrupting a national election. It is a necessary accommodation for isolated voters and a buffer against relentless Republican efforts to further disenfranchise minorities. Carrying your elderly parent’s and neighbor’s ballot to the mailbox is not blatant ballot harvesting nor is it fraud that we might have to wait for the final electoral results during election week instead of on election night.

George Washington feared our Union might be fractured by intractable factions and the specter of "some aspiring demagogue who will not consult the interest of his Country so much as his own ambitious views, threatening the security of the American people and the rule of constitutional law.”

Trump has proven himself to be the embodiment of Washington’s prescient fears. We must win this race against America’s nascent fascist tyrant.

JB Bouchard

Puget Island