Thread by @Hegemommy

Yes everything is terrible with Kavanaugh's confirmation but I think it's also important to remember that the Court for the majority of its history has also been terrible

The Supreme Court has rarely sided with disadvantaged people over the privileged. More often than not it has been the branch that has solidified power rather than pushed it back.

So I think that means a couple things.

One is that we need to be prepared for decades of conservative jurisprudence. The advances of the Warren/Brennan era will be pushed back. What many of us think of as a Supreme Court of expanding rights is an anomaly

Another is to remember that we've survived terrible Supreme Court reigns before. The Taney Court, for example. The Taney Court was explicitly about protecting the economic institution of chattel slavery

I know that's cold comfort in a lot of ways I really do.

My point is not to say this is okay. It is the opposite of okay. My point is that our institutions were never going to save us and that's tough for progressives who really believe in the institutions. It is for me.

It's a symptom of a larger ill. How can we urge folks to vote our way out of this mess if we've gerrymandered districts to Republicans can't lose or we've got voter restriction laws that suppress Democratic votes?

This is very frustrating at a time when so many [white] people are finally invested with real skin in the game.

I still believe these fights matter, to be clear. I believe they do foster change and that it is just slow and we are impatient, and rightly so. But it's exhausting and discouraging and I don't know what to say about that other than it just is.

Now more than ever though, white folks our bodies have to be first on the line. Like the Taney Court it will *not be white bodies* that feel the brunt of this reality. It will *not be cis bodies*

If ever there was a time to weaponize our privilege this is it.