By Terry Manning
I’m not Spider-Man, but if I were, I’m pretty sure my “Spidey” senses would be driving me nuts right now.
See, the Marvel comic book and movie superhero has a built-in early warning system for when danger is approaching, whether it’s a falling piano or an incoming punch from one of his gallery of villains. He doesn’t always know what the threat is, but he knows the threat exists. And it’s getting close.
Well, my early warning system is tingling — yours too, probably — and there’s good reason.
A conservative bloc in this country is getting closer every day to wiping out many of the freedoms we have enjoyed over the past half-century, that define what “freedom” really means, and they’re obtuse enough to think we’re too dumb to notice how we’re being groomed for it.
One example is the slow-motion roll-out of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ admissions he has been in the pocket of conservative super-donors for a major part of his tenure on the high court. ProPublica broke a story in April 2023 about how Thomas had been on vacations hosted and paid for by billionaire Harlan Crowe.
Thomas defended the outings as “friendly trips.” He claimed he’d asked advice from unnamed colleagues in the judiciary who told him they weren’t conflicts of interest despite being worth an estimated $500,000. In the 15 months since that first report, more disclosures have shown Thomas enjoyed other “friendly trips” worth a total value of at least $5 million over the past 20 years.
You can thank Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for inquiring into this fiasco. Republicans? They say Democrats are “smearing” Thomas because the court has swung hard right and want to regain control.
The first problem is we have a Supreme Court justice whose ethical lapses would have gotten him booted from presiding over a typical municipal court.
The second problem is there’s no means for addressing his corruption because the court isn’t going to police itself and half the legislative branch is controlled by a party that will look the other way as long Thomas keeps helping it achieve its agenda. Abortion rights? Gone. Contraceptive rights? Endangered. Thomas has even said he wishes for a review of same-sex and interracial marriages — and his wife is white!
Another example? The former president is convicted of election tampering for paying an adult film star to hide the story of their dalliances, and he and his minions go on national TV to announce a revenge tour. Their justification? Claiming (falsely) that his prosecution was based solely on political motivations.
Another? Conservatives have broadened their affirmative action rollbacks to take on even the least offensive efforts to remedy decades of overt racial discrimination.
Just last week a federal appeals court ruling stopped a venture capital firm from reserving funds for businesses owned by Black women because it might discriminate against other races.
“Other races” is a phrase to cover for white people. That’s who sued in this case. That’s who sued to block federal debt relief to Black farmers who had been discriminated against in lending from the USDA. That’s who sued to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions.
Let me get this straight: We cannot level the playing field produced by racism because doing so might racially discriminate against the people who previously practiced and benefited from racism.
Someone please, make it make sense.
Another example is the general coarseness of public discourse practiced by the right. I’m no shrinking violet, but I’m tired of turning on the news and hearing profanity. Sometimes it’s aired straight from the horses’ mouths and at others it’s paraphrases of comments from the former president or one of his attack dogs.
Not only do they openly threaten their political opponents, they threaten their own party members who don’t lick the boot with sufficient enthusiasm. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene never misses a chance to stain the air with her venomous utterances. She’s like Peanuts’ Pig-Pen taken to the extreme, walking around in a cloud of hateful crassness.
Openly corrupt judges. The re-institutionalization of racial bias. The denial of women controlling their bodies. Threats of political violence. Unprovoked vulgarities in the public arena.
What “good ol’ days” are they trying to reinstate? What “Christian nation” behaves like this? What deity would authorize this divisiveness?
And I’ve barely scratched the surface with these examples.
My senses are tingling all right, and if yours are not, you’re not paying close enough attention. It’s time to start.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
