Rowing back progress

Although today’s US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs Wade had been leaked some time ago, the reality of it still came as a shock. Even as economic inequality has deepened in the last decade or so, the left has been able to console itself with the idea that the social gains of the last 50 years or so were more or less secure. It’s harder to believe that now, with the Conservative wing of the Court openly gunning for every progressive gain from voting rights to interracial marriage.

On the other hand, the fact that this decision is so clearly out of step with US public opinion, and has only come about as a result of the flagrantly undemocratic packing of the Court, might be the straw that finally breaks the unfathomable reverence US liberals pay to the Constitution, a document drawn up two centuries ago by white male slaveowners to preserve their dominance over society. If that is too much to hope for, then at least the elections in November might see some blowback against a Republican Party which engineered this assault on the civil liberties of 51.1% of the population.

Platinum indifference

I had a vague memory that I had written a post a decade ago to mark the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee; a quick search through the archive confirmed this, though it was a bit less profound than I remembered. I suspect the deep and insightful piece I was thinking of was actually this one, penned on the day Queen Elizabeth II became our longest serving monarch, though again my recall had perhaps exaggerated its intellectual heft.

I thus feel obligated to post something on the subject of the Platinum Jubilee, but, to be honest, I’ve found the whole thing rather underwhelming. I’m not exactly the target audience for the pageantry of the last few days I guess, but it hasn’t even inflamed my republican passions beyond a mild sense of disapproval. While, on an abstract level, my opposition to the institution of the monarchy remains as strong as ever, the concrete reality is that Elizabeth’s longevity has resulted in her becoming personally identified with the role to such a degree that to criticise it feels like giving an old and infirm woman a needlessly hard time.

So, like most of the population, I’ve spent the weekend enjoying the good weather, and trying to forget about everything else that is going on the world. There will be plenty of time for anti-royal agitation when Charles III is on the throne.