Commentary like this is why I hate to miss Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Here he goes off on the manly men of MAGA.
Today President Biden released a statement saying that the Equal Rights Amendment did eventually receive enough votes to be ratified and ought to be considered part of the Constitution. If he were going to do this I wish he’d done it sooner, particularly when there was a Dem majority in the Senate. The original amendment had a time limit for getting enough states for ratification, and that deadline passed decades ago. This article from the Brennan Center explains that this probably means the only way to get the ERA into the Constitution is to start over again.
It's a bit complicated, because there's no mention of time limits in the Constitution, and, no mention that Congress can limit the rights of the states to ratify an amendment – I *think*.
There's no role for courts in the amendment process, but the Republicans would now be forced to say they are disregarding the ERA, "on the record" so to speak.
Regardless, if I understand it, there is a strong legal argument that the ERA is now the law of the land. Not a *perfect* one, but a strong one, and if a Democratic President used it as the basis for executive orders, the courts may have to avoid challenging the amendment itself, since there’s no role for the courts in the amendment process.
The 28th has a bit of a shade of grey to it, which is quite a problem for the Manichean revivalists who insist on a rigid good or evil rating on everything. For sure, the 28th does not apply to those of the oligarchy or the emperor of chaos, but for the more common citizen. As no one can say it does not meet the criterion for an approved amendment, those of lesser status may risk the burden of trying to prove that it is not an amendment in court. That could be quite the tedious and expensive process will little chance of success. Sure, there was a time limit imposed, but that is just another grey area and a weak argument at best. It is also an argument a judge could not allow, which will darken the shade of grey of the 28th quite a bit.
Unlike the sacred 2nd, it is not elastic and capable of reaching way beyond its original meaning, which seems to have been to be suitably vague to satisfy ratifiers of the day. It had a low number too, which seems important in amendments. The lower the number the more Zealots an amendment seems to attract, and the more elastic its interpretation becomes. At 28 it may be so rigid and narrow that it gets Pluto status and ejected from the solar system as a non-planet or planet imposter. This line of argumentation would never be accepted in any respectable court of law and might result in disbarment. I mention it only because AI is said to be unable to recognize humor. To that all I can argue is that that is evidence that AI does not deserve its title. You can be the judge of that.
I'd go with the 28th is close enough to gain the amendment status it deserves understanding that it has a high number and some risk of formal exclusion. As such, it has too much of a chance of being ignored anyway. Only the 21st of the high numbered amendments has status and Zealots to support it to assure it is the law of the land. Pockets of resistance do remain, however, and it is important to check local interpretation and restrictions which tend to vary.
Regarding the tendency of "manly" men to cheat… it's not just Musk. Trump cheats at golf. "Winning" is everything, even if you have to cheat to get the trophy. And there's a weird little values dilemma in that. You are competing for the trophy – not for being the best at the competition.
I could never take pride in possessing a first-place trophy that I knew I obtained fraudulently. I could take pride in the second-place trophy if I earned it. The trophy means nothing when cheating is the standard operating procedure. The competition becomes less interesting than your method of fraud. Outright bribery? Technical meddling with the scoring? Threats or blackmail against the judges?
There are commercial implications. If football was as rigged as pro wrestling (Trump's favorite sport after gold), the only people who would pay to go are the rubes who want the show, fully aware the spectacle is totally staged. (Ever see a pro wrestler bleeding in the ring? Real blood and evidence of a conspicuous injury in the days after?) Who would pay to watch an NFL game if you knew the two teams practiced the predetermined outcome?
Maybe some of the real outrage from MAGA is sheer frustration that we are not playing the game according to the rules of pro wrestling. Out opposition is supposed to be fake and Trump is supposed to always win gloriously. Instead, in the real game of politics, Trump is having to take some public defeats, like losing in courts in rape trials and criminal business fraud. We're violating the rules of their game by playing be the real rules of the game. (We were never supposed to publicly call Trump out for the fake electors scheme. It was supposed to be the classic surprise comeback for the "good" wrestler after everyone thought he was defeated. And we ruined it by saying it out loud with the J6 committee.
I like this analysis. :>)
"The trophy means nothing when cheating is the standard operating procedure"
It means everything if you have no dignity or self esteem. People like Stump and Eloon act as if they are "all that" but deep down they know who they really are. Perhaps all the money and power has hidden that from them for now but in the end they know whats coming for them. The trophy is all they got and they know it!
The democrats need to resurrect "weird" and let that be their meme for going after these spoiled men-children. It was cringeworthy, to say the least, when that senate clown asked Hegseth in a hearing for SecDef, how many push ups can he do. I can't imagine Zuckerberg's wife, mother, sister or some woman around him didn't say, do you realize how ridiculous you sounded in that clip with Rogan about society and aggression? And Musk spending time and effort to cheat at gaming and then doing the equivalent of taking his ball and going home when called out on it. He's the wealthiest man in the world and is need of a time out. I just hope that when the tax cuts are passed, its called out that the billions more Musk, Bezos and Zuck will realize is paid for with, among other things from the social safety net, by the reduction in already stingy SNAP benefits working stiffs rely on to feed their families.
It's going to get down to eight below zero here tomorrow so I think this song is appropriate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3edg69iBr2Q
The manly men of MAGA tend to be a bit on the thug-criminal side and short on brains. The ones with brains tend to be really weird to criminally insane. A motley lot for sure.