For some days now, progressive commentators have been regaling us with lists of the horrible laws that states will be able to pass if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Those lists strike me as much too timid. There is much more that Congress and the state legislatures could enact in a post-Roe environment. They could, for instance –
- abolish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other welfare and social insurance programs,
- reverse the income tax brackets, so that the higher one’s income, the lower one’s tax rate,
- halt immigration,
- outlaw electric vehicles,
- forbid wearing masks in public places,
- ban the sale of alcoholic beverages,
- require all businesses to close on Sunday (or any other day of the week),
- and much, much more.
But lawmakers don’t have to wait for Roe’s demise to do all that. Every one of those actions is possible right now. The U.S. Constitution established a structure of government and contains a small number of prohibitions against particular government actions. The framers didn’t try to foresee and prohibit every unwise law that might ever be dreamed up in legislative chambers, nor did they set up a board of philosopher-kings to strike down folly. One of the consequences of popular rule is that “the people” are no more immune than any individual to stupidity, fanaticism, ignorance and bigotry.
Though progressives talk incessantly these days about “saving our democracy”, they display diminishing confidence in the demos and increasing unwillingness to accept the possibility that it might reject their preferred policies. Hence they look to the philosopher-kings for salvation and are appalled when the kings disappoint them. “Our democracy” is evidently so precious to them that they want to keep it out of sight.
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