Steve Bannon did a great job picking Neil Gorsuch.
He’s handsome. He’s well spoken. Has a stellar CV. Was confirmed by a unanimous vote for his current job. And we’re going to hear lots of people say awesome things about him during his confirmation hearings.
But Neil Gorsuch is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Neil Gorsuch will destroy America. At least the America most Americans know and love
Here are just 7 of many reasons why:
1. It’s in his DNA.
Neil’s mother Ann Burford Gorsuch tried to destroy the EPA as EPA Administrator by cutting its budget and simply refusing to file cases against polluters because she, like Bannon, was “a firm believer that the federal government was too big, too powerful and too eager to issue regulations that restricted businesses.” She resigned in disgrace in 1983 after a scandal.
2. He was a smartass kid who publically dreamed of destroying America
Young Neil literally joked about being the “President of The Fascism Forever Club” in his high school yearbook, exactly in the mode of Steven Miller, the Trump adviser and speechwriter who wrote both Unconstitutional Muslim travel bans. Yeah, that guy who went on national television and - like a proud Fascist - said with a straight face “The President’s power shall not be questioned”. Steve Bannon chose him too.
Gorsuch has dreamed of destroying America since he was a kid. Sounds crazy, right, but how else does one interpret that, of all the things he could put as a quote to celebrate his graduation from Columbia University, Neil chose Henry Kissinger’s horrifying one, “The illegal we do immediately. the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Really. Here’s the photo. Who says stuff like that at age 17? And guess what? If confirmed, this same Neil Gorsuch will be one of 5 human beings on the planet to determine what is “illegal” and what is “unconstitutional” for The United States of America for the next 20, 30, 40 or even more years! Well done, Neil.
3. Women will soon be dying from back alley abortions again.
Really. Gorsuch will overturn “Roe v. Wade” and make abortion illegal again in America. And maybe also “penalize” women for having abortions, something Donald Trump actually promised during the campaign.
4. Gay marriage will once again be illegal.
Really. 5 Supreme Court Justices can reverse the 2015 opinion that made gay marriage legal. If Gorsuch is confirmed, there will be 4 committed to doing so. With one more Bannon/Trump pick, there will be 5.
5. Neil will be in a position to finish the job that mom Ann didn’t get to finish
Neil Gorsuch will destroy what is left of the EPA and smile broadly as corporations are once again allowed to pour toxic chemicals into rivers in towns across America, industries are allowed to pour unlimited greenhouse gas into the air, clearcut forests, and convert the natural resources of our country into awesome corporate profit.
6. But destroying the environment is just the beginning. The man who chose Neil, Steve Bannon, literally wants to “destroy everything”.
Yes, the most important man in The Trump Whitehouse, Donald Trump’s “Chief Strategist”, the guy who put himself on The National Security Council without even telling Trump - that guy - actually said the following.
“I’m a Leninist . . .Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
Yes, he actually said that. And he is doing it with every appointment he gets Trump to make.
Bannon chose anti-environmentalist and climate denier Scott Pruitt to destroy the EPA.
Bannon chose someone who vowed, on national television, to eliminate The Energy Department, to “run” The Energy Department, Gov. Rick Perry.
Bannon chose someone who hates public education, Betsy DeVos, to destroy the Department of Education
Bannon chose Rex Tilerson to help gut The State Department and the current international order of treaties, trade pacts and alliances that has kept the world relatively safe since World War II.
And, on March 13, Bannon took the next step in his plan to “Deconstruct ‘The Administrative State” as he got Donald Trump to sign yet another Executive Order, this time to “Restructure The Executive Branch” in order to cripple or shut down almost every regulatory function and agency that protects America and Americans
But The Holy Grail of Presidential Appointments is when a President gets to fill a seat on The United States Supreme Court. There, Bannon/Trump’s appointee can literally decree that anything and everything that Steve Bannon and Donald Trump are doing . . . and want to do . . . is “Legal” and “Constitutional”. And whatever The Supreme Court says becomes “The Law” in The United States. Period.
Neil Gorsuch can do that for Bannon. Neil Gorsuch will do that for Bannon.
7. Neil Gorsuch Is THE Leading Judge in America on “Deconstructing The Administrative State”. That’s The Main Reason Steve Bannon Chose Him
In 2016 Judge Gorsuch wrote an opinion that surely caught the eye of Steve Bannon. This opinion, in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, is THE case that will be used by The Supreme Court to “Deconstruct ‘The Administrative State’”. It rips away much of the authority of Executive Branch agencies like The EPA, The FDA, HUD, The FCC, The FEC , Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and many others, to create and enforce the “regulations” that Conservative Republicans so hate Instead, Gorsuch says that judges and courts should be the ones to interpret even the most minute aspects of every law that Congress passes.
Want to stop companies from pouring toxic chemicals into rivers? Nope. Can’t do that. Need to have the courts make that decision!
The power of regulatory agencies is a complicated issue going back to a Supreme Court decision that Conservatives hate called “Chevron”. But the bottom line for America is that Neil Gorsuch will be a vote, for 20, 30 or 40 years for “Deconstructing ‘The Administrative State’” and for an America where corporations are given the power to do whatever they want and where regulations that protect America and Americans bow to corporate profit . . . something that the “President of The Fascism Forever Club” would surely love.
Steve Bannon explicitly wants to “destroy the establishment”. Neil Gorsuch is his perfect tool to do just that. His nomination must be rejected and Donald Trump must be asked to listen to the guidance of Ronald Reagan and not Steve Bannon and appoint a mainstream judge like Sandra Day O’Connor or Anthony Kennedy to sit on our nation’s highest court until the 2050s or beyond. 41 of the 48 Senate Democrats can do this by standing up to Trump and Bannon and Filibustering this radical remake of America.
Richard Greene is a political communication strategist, a former attorney, national radio talk show host, judicial extern and Clore Warne Fellow at The Constitutional Rights Foundation and author of “Words That Shook The World: 100 Years of Unforgettable Speeches and Events”.