The premise of my post was that Barrett had gone from being the Belle of the Right-Wing Cotillion to becoming the target of right-wing ire for not carrying water for the Trump Regime. Then I predicted that these folks were going to abandon all pretense of preserving diversity on the Court when the next vacancy occurs. (So if there are any Black MAGA who were hoping to get that "black" job Clearance Thomas has been holding onto for 30+ years, keep dreaming. Yes, I know I spelled his name incorrectly.) That seat will be reclaimed and filled by another good ole boy who got his law degree from Trump University. My bitcoins are on the Interim US Attorney for DC because, what a tool...
In case it hasn't become clear by now, women in the Trumposphere are expected to serve very specific functions. Melania Antoinette is still the mermaid-Medusa on the mast of the Titanic. The Chief of Staff is one of those post-menopausal mean mother figures. The Press Secretary is probably some runner-up pageant contestant who is auditioning for her next gig on FOX or Newsmax. Attorney General Pam Bondi is destined to be the Ann Boleyn of this Administration, first to get her head chopped if the court losses continue to pile up. Laura Loomer, conspicuously sidelined from the campaign once we all figured out that she was a wannabe mistress, has been reduced to harping against Elon Musk, her nemesis, on his platform. Expect her to provide a Stormi Daniels-y plot twist of some kind to keep the ratings afloat. Linda McMahon is giving us Lovey Howell vibes--another rich socialite with no friends so she commits herself to charitable destruction.
Kristi "I shot that dog" Noem is starring in a series of commercials that showcase her habitual cruelty in mistreating God's creatures to the taxpayer tune of $200 million (at least $50 million is covering the cost of her botox injections, hair weave, and makeup). The ambassadorship that is allowing Kimberly Guilfoyle to detox on the other side of the world is an interesting consolation prize for having kept Don Jr. from breaking things in the Oval. It is also proof that it was always a projection to accuse VP Harris of getting ahead through sleeping around with powerful men. I won't bother making dishonorable mention of any of the others unless they do or say something worth noting.
My guess is that if MAGA is truly pissed at Amy Coney Barrett, it is because they underestimated her. They expected a mannequin, a female dress-form to drape in a black robe, to pose and put on display as needed. Barrett was conveniently in the right place at the right time when Fate intervened and sent Death to finally pry the dissent pen from Ruth Bader Ginsburg's cold left hand. This vacancy was the answer to their prayers for ideological dominance--a sixth vote. So they lied and bent the "rules", rushed her confirmation through the Senate, and then promptly appealed every precedent they wanted overturned to their newly fortified Supreme Court. Since they had jerry-rigged the process on the front end to install Neil Gorsuch as the intellectual heavyweight and North Star, the debutante Justice need only follow his lead and sign her name to his opinions.
That's what they expected, and at first, she dutifully played along. She kept her head down, helped to dismantle a few major precedents, and waited a respectable amount of time before seeking to build her own legacy. See, it's been almost five years since her trip to the Emerald City, and like everybody else, she left there disillusioned upon discovering that the Wizard is just a useless, failed con man standing behind a frayed curtain. She never needed anything from him--she was born with a spine and a brain, and that lifetime appointment came from Mitch McConnell's bag of tricks. All Trump did was pick her name out of a hat and give her a big coming out party where everybody got COVID.
Although I am no fan of Justice Barrett's, the Court is a co-equal branch of our government. I don't have to agree with her ideologically to understand why she's in the line of fire. MAGA thought they were getting another pretty blond stereotypical Barbie fresh out of the box; who woulda thought she would go all Sandra Day O'Connor on their asses?
One of the angry troll visitors to my page expressed exasperation that Justice Barrett could vote for wasting taxpayer dollars on foreign-born transgender mice...an intriguing head-scratching claim until I understood the context. I offered her a quick refresher on reading comprehension and the three branches of government. She didn't return to thank me, which was rude, but also on brand for folks who have time to shit post on social media, yet can't figure out how to use Google. Another angry troll complained that Barrett must have been threatened and unduly influenced, so my reaction--by what, her own conscience? She's still a Karen like the rest of you, only she's not content to play a supporting role in the Shakespearean tragedy of America's downfall. Amy has always been a leading lady, so she's seizing her moment and commanding the stage.
Let's break down the absurdity of the suggestion (once again) that a woman born with a fully functioning brain that she used to earn a law degree is somehow unable to think for herself. Y'all tried that with Ketanji Brown Jackson, and I wasn't having it then, so I won't allow it now even as I'm clear how Amy Coney Barrett voted on Election Day. She's brilliant though not always, but nobody is perfect. Not even an Amy.
Yeah, we all saw that face she made at the Joint Session, but that doesn't reveal anything other than Trump probably has bad breath. The fact that she showed up and sat there for two hours on a school night should tell you that she hasn't suddenly switched sides. So going all Red Queen on her over one or a handful of decisions is pointless unless she does something more substantial and defiant to indicate that this wasn't just another example of a broken clock being right twice a day.
In other words, she may lunch with the other ladies of the Court periodically, but she's not joining their coffee club nor is she inviting herself to catch up over drinks with them after a grueling day. Don't get it twisted--they may work in the same building, but they aren't girlfriends. Doña Sonia and Soror Ketanji may personally like Amy, but they ain't about to taste any of her Cajun potato salad with raisins. They just started to let Elena Kagan bring the bagels...
If Barrett is receiving threats, it ain't from the sister Supremes. They're too busy writing children's books and personal memoirs; issuing dire warnings about the end of our democracy; receiving alumni honors; or moonlighting on Broadway to worry about what Amy is doing. I could be wrong, and I will retract if proven otherwise, but again, she's not their friend. The very notion of the law school class valedictorian being hazed by a wise Latina, an awkward Black girl, and a Jewish yenta--a trio of nerdy feminists--is beyond laughable.
We're all decades removed from law school, but trust me, those dynamics persist and follow us throughout our lives. Lawyers are not normal people--we're all weird, quirky, brilliant, self-deprecating, arrogant, and exactly who we've always been since high school. Every person pictured here represents the different "types" of people one encounters in law school (starting from the bottom row on the left): the older student who always wanted to be a lawyer; the self-loathing Black guy; the president of the College Republicans; the boot-strapping conservative son of immigrants; the Betty Friedan/Bella Azbug feminist; (top row from the right) the quasi-militant busy Black woman; the guy who thinks he is the life of the party; the most imperious man in the room; and Amy, the fairest one of all.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a letter to my daughter that contrasted how the world regards us as opposed to Amys, and after rereading it, I was amazed at how visceral and raw my anger was. I recall my righteous indignation at the various microaggressions and outright racist taunts directed at Ketanji Brown Jackson, and by extension, every Black woman I knew. It stirred up so much of the resentment I thought I had let go of; instead, I had buried it in a vacuum-sealed time capsule. As triggering as looking back on all of that was, unearthing my resentment and bitterness was also quite liberating.
You see, having been a quasi-militant Busy Black Woman for all of these years, I know that no matter how well groomed, prepared, and appropriately packaged I arrive, I won't be judged on any of that. I will be judged on how much I remind them of Amy, or maybe on how long they can tolerate and settle for me in lieu of an Amy. Even when we're not in competition against each other, somebody has got to be Jan Brady feeling some kind of way about Marsha (or is it Marcia? Marsha? Marcia.) Of course, the fact that I want to be seen in my own light, on my own merits doesn't matter. My presence there is meant to compliment Amy since I'm not supposed to outshine the galaxy's brightest star.
Just so that we're clear: I'm not coming for Justice Barrett. She's definitely one of yours, so if you're feeling any remorse or regret that your cult leader didn't take the time to vet her properly, then tough noogies. Y'all are out here railing against DEI (an acronym most of you cannot explain) and admitting that you didn't expect her to be capable of putting in the work required. You thought she'd be too inundated with homework and laundry to draft her own opinions. Now you know that she's not the pretty smart girl whom you voted most likely to end up with a job as a FOX News spokesmodel; she's the pretty and smart girl who got all of the awards at the high school honors assembly. Ione Sky's character in Say Anything.
At the same time that I assure you that I am not piling on, I must admit to taking some perverse glee at seeing the high school burn book levels of betrayal MAGA world has unleashed on one of their own. It's brutal and ugly. Because their sexism and misogyny reduces women to utility as opposed to appreciating us as fully formed and complex human beings. When I look at our life stories and realize how much Amy Coney Barrett and I have in common, I can find some empathy for her current predicament. Quasi-militant busy Black women can be just as polarizing as an Amy. Too smart for our own good.
However, if you know anything about the pecking order of classmates we don't hang with because of high school or college (and definitely not after law school), there is a reason why Amy is at the top of that list. We've been burned by women who seem nice and friendly at first, only to the extent that their kindness is convenient and comfortable for them. Lest we forget those women who were demanding that the world re-open in the midst of COVID so that they could get their spa treatments (while they continued to work from home). Sure, we can relate to an Amy's perpetual Type-A struggle for perfection, but unlike her, we can't just hire more help. There aren't enough of us to outsource the work of dismantling the systems of oppression. Our reasons for seeking access to those exclusive spaces don't include serving or preserving the patriarchy; therefore, we know better than to trust Miss Amy to be any kind of ally.
We have never forgotten how Missy Anne Reynolds treated Kizzy in Roots...
Finally, it isn't as if Amy Coney Barrett is personally hurt, offended, or intimidated by any of this backlash. She knows exactly what it takes to survive as a woman in conservative legal circles. Amy set her sights on the Supreme Court back when President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor. Every move she's made since we were in elementary school has been intentional and executed with the sole purpose of earning that seat. So trust, her problem isn't that she doesn't fit the bill ideologically as a conservative, because res ipsa loquitur. Her problem is that these MAGA folks forget that Amy has been teased and taunted by their kind all of her life, which only motivates her to work harder and smarter.
She spent those high school weekends at home hitting the books instead of hanging out at their sporting events and getting drunk at their parties. She was never a cheerleader, on the pep squad, nor even an extra in the school play. Her extra-curriculars were debate team and the school newspaper--she's the Amy who wrote those editorials on obscure political topics that no one read except the faculty moderators. Since she didn't rush the popular sorority in college, she found her tribe among the College Republicans, most times as the only woman at the mixers not looking to land a rich husband (but she's an Amy, so she married one anyway). She excelled in law school, clerked for Antonin Scalia, adopted Haitian refugee children, sorts her garbage, shops at Talbots, never misses Mass, and is otherwise practically perfect in every way.
Y'all got the exact Justice you thought you wanted, except Amy Coney Barrett ain't no Mary Poppins. The political winds may shift, but thanks to lifetime tenure and a strict exercise regimen, she's not going anywhere anytime soon. She didn't work this hard for all of these years to get to the Court just to watch Donald Trump destroy this country like a Golden Bull run amok in a china shop...thus, to the extent that she has any power to stop him, she will. She's the mother of seven, not the governess, so it is not in her job description to clean up after unruly children. That's for Congress and the voters to sort out. You should have read the fine print, caveat emptor. Case dismissed.
