2022-06-26

Woes for Modern Hypocrites

"Snakes! Cold-blooded sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse."

- Matthew 23:33-34 (MSG)

Amy Coney Barrett

You were only able to become a judge in the first place when a lower court seat was illegitimately held open for over a year. Then you were unilaterally rushed through confirmation despite your lack of experience and open theocratic leanings, including ties to what has been fairly described as an actual cult. You were placed on the Court by a president who was already being voted out of office and a party with minority support that had previously claimed (as a paper-thin excuse) that an outgoing president could not be allowed to make such an appointment. A woman to replace a woman, they also said, in a cynical mockery of equality, as though women were merely interchangeable parts with no humanity of their own. You are utterly unqualified for your position, and your rulings have not only reflected that, but also disregarded the humanity of women no less than the dishonest rhetoric surrounding your appointment.

You have failed to administer justice, to do equal right to all, to impartially perform your duties, to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, and the American people and system of government. You have no integrity or credibility, and have never been worthy of the position you illicitly hold.

May your works be undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

Brett Michael Kavanaugh

You were unilaterally installed almost without a hearing, despite numerous serious questions about your suitability, honesty, temperament, finances, and loyalties, on top of the rapey behavior that got all the attention—and should have been disqualifying on its own. And despite how rushed your confirmation process was, you still managed to perjure yourself repeatedly. At best, you are, as amply proven by your own actions before, during, and after your wrongful appointment, a spoiled brat with no respect for the rights of others. At worst, you may have been bought and paid for by parties that remain unrevealed even now. In no case should you ever have sat on any court, nor been trusted with any other position of power or influence.

You have failed to administer justice, to do equal right to all, to impartially perform your duties, to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, and the American people and system of government. You have no integrity or credibility, and have never been worthy of the position you illicitly hold.

May your works be undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

Neil McGill Gorsuch

Your seat was flagrantly stolen for you by a Senate that unilaterally refused to do its duty for more than eight months, and threatened to continue the same indefinitely had Trump not come into office. You might argue that this is not your fault, and though you would have a valid point, had you the integrity incumbent upon the role, you would have declined the nomination under such circumstances. You may be more measured and reasoned than some of the others, yet you have proven time and time again unable or unwilling to keep your more extreme and reckless colleagues in check.

You have failed to administer justice, to do equal right to all, to impartially perform your duties, to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, and the American people and system of government. You have, at best, minimal integrity and credibility, and are not worthy of the position you illicitly hold.

May your works be undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr.

For many years the most openly biased member of the Court to begin with, you made headlines not long ago by entirely abandoning any semblance of impartiality to give the pernicious Federalist Society a factually-bankrupt bitterly partisan grievance-ridden speech that rightfully ought to disqualify you from hearing any cases on just about anything. You are not worthy to sit as a judge over a cook-off, much less over a nation.

You have failed to administer justice, to do equal right to all, to impartially perform your duties, to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, and the American people and system of government. You have no integrity or credibility, and have never been worthy of the position you hold.

May your works be undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

Clarence Thomas

They say it is better to be thought a fool and remain silent than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, and for much of your career, you have exemplified the concept. After coming into your position as an unqualified token replacement for Thurgood Marshall, much as Barrett after you came as an unqualified token replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and moreover tainted by credible accusations of sexual abuse much like those that should have disqualified Kavanaugh, you could scarcely have taken a wiser approach, short of outright stepping down.

Yet now you have openly expressed your eagerness to continue overthrowing decades of settled law in ways that would drive the nation into turmoil unprecedented in living memory. Your arguments would allow states to ban condoms and other contraceptives, outlaw out any marriages that extremists do not approve of (including your own!), even criminalize what sorts of relations consenting adults may have in the hypothetical privacy of their own homes. The same reasoning could easily eliminate everything from the ADA to civil rights laws, and more.

Perhaps you think yourself sufficiently wealthy and powerful to remain insulated from such consequences, perhaps you truly are such a fool that you cannot comprehend what you have endorsed, or perhaps you simply do not care. None of these are respectable or befitting of a functional member of society, much less a Justice of the Supreme Court.

You have failed to administer justice, to do equal right to all, to impartially perform your duties, to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, and the American people and system of government. You have no integrity or credibility, and have never been worthy of the position you hold.

May your works be undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

John Glover Roberts Jr.

You have long sought a veneer of respectability, yet have enabled the debasement and weaponization of the Court and allowed it to be undermined and politicized at every turn, at least since Shelby County v. Holder, which has predictably led to widespread and highly partisan voter suppression. You have allowed rights to be stripped from the people even as new rights are invented for weaponry and corporations. And now, you have become largely helpless before an extremist majority you helped create. Your attempts to maintain the image of the Court, uphold the idea of an independent judiciary, and cling to legitimacy have been reduced to a farce, and you will be fortunate if history regards you any more kindly than it does Roger Taney.

You have failed to administer justice, to do equal right to all, to impartially perform your duties, to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, and the American people and system of government. You have minimal credibility at most, have squandered your reputation, and are not worthy of the position you hold.

May your works be undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

Donald John Trump

You have never been anything more than a fraud and a cheat, sheltered by your wealth and influence from your myriad failures, and from ever having to face the truth. Although you did not create the violent racism, xenophobia, misogyny, heteronormativity, dominionism, denial of reality, and general bigotry that define your base of support, you have done perhaps more than anyone else to embolden these and fan the flames of discord. And that's not even mentioning how your desperate efforts to cling to power at any cost have threatened democracy itself, incited an armed insurrection, and continued to threaten the stability of the nation years later.

You not only failed to faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States or to preserve, protect, or defend the Constitution of the United States, but never so much as made the attempt. You have betrayed the nation, the Constitution, the American people and system of government, and, it would seem, everyone you have ever interacted with in any capacity. You have no integrity or credibility, and have never been worthy of any position or power or influence you have ever held.

Through it all, you have shown not the least sign of caring one whit for anyone or anything other than yourself. And yet there are still those who trust and respect you, although you have done nothing to deserve this and shown them nothing but contempt. I cannot understand this, and cannot help but find it terrifying. How can someone cling so tightly to tribalism and hurting the "other"? But while this poses a grave threat to those they fear and hate, it is also destructive to them. And so, may the truth of who and what you are be made plain and evident to all, that all the respect you never earned be turned to scorn. May your every venture fail so spectacularly that the undeserved privilege you were born with can no longer shield you from the consequences of your own actions.

May your misdeeds be swiftly undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell III

Although you were known as a moderate and a pragmatist in your earlier years, you have since entirely abandoned any pretense of caring for anything other than power at any cost. No excuse is too flimsy for you, no tactic too underhanded, and just when it seems that you can sink no lower, you find a way to do just that. I would call you the most contemptible of hypocrites, but you might take that as a compliment.

Though others have been far more brazen in their treachery, you have perhaps done more than any other single person to corrupt the rule of law and undermine the integrity of the republic. So despised are you that at least one person struggling with depression has named "Do you really want Mitch McConnell to outlive you?" as their single most helpful thought for staving off ideas of suicide.

You have failed to support or defend the Constitution of the United States, to bear faith or allegiance to the same, or to well or faithfully discharge the duties of your office. You have betrayed your oath, the Constitution, the American people and system of government in general, and your constituents in particular. You have no integrity or credibility, and though perhaps you may once have been worthy of the position you hold, that time is long gone.

May your misdeeds be swiftly undone, your name be remembered as a stain on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your soul. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

And far too many more

I could keep going, but we'd be here all week.

I can't not mention Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, though. You know what you've done, how you've undermined democracy, weaponized bigotry, falsely demonized entire segments of the population, and fought to destroy education, even as you ignore or exacerbate real problems. And you don't seem to care.

And so, once more, may your misdeeds be swiftly undone, your names be remembered as stains on history, and your guilt weigh heavy upon your souls. May you know no peace until such time as you make atonement for your sins.

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