Thread by @BrynnTannehill

SCOTUS has opened Pandora's box. They've reverted to an extreme "states' rights" position that allows red states to end civil rights and oversight of corporations. Blue states like CA are going to try to drive the market with sanctuary laws and their own regs. 1/n

We're heading precisely towards the next phase of the American implosion: Two Americas, like in post-reconstruction and Jim Crow. What will (likely) determine if we move on to the next phase of dystopia is (again) the courts. 2/n

If SCOTUS allows Texas to prosecute women who leave the state for abortions, and to prosecute doctors who perform abortions outside the state (or provide medications like Plan B), that ignites the next crisis: 3/n

Will blue states continue to recognize SCOTUS as a legitimate authority? Or, will it act as another Dred Scott decision? At that point, blue states have a choice: 4/n

The safe and easy path of accepting authoritarianism, theocracy, and single party rule, or the messy, risky, and chaotic path of soft (e.g. Kurds in Iraq) or hard secession (e.g. CSA)? Does this result in a USSR or Yugoslavia scenario? 5/n

Regardless, Hell is empty and all the devils are here. I can't imagine the "Two States" equilibrium lasting past a SCOTUS that gets even one more hardliner to go with Barrett, Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh. Which is likely to arrive between 2025 and 2028. 6/n

Red states are bent on forcing the issue, and I suspect that SCOTUS will let a SB8 law targeting women who go out of state for abortions to slide through, claiming that it lies outside their powers to rule on (just as they did SB8) 7/n

So yeah, we're on a rail towards the court forcing blue states into a corner, and then getting the judicial equivalent of "*** around and find out."

As Scott attests, there are consequences to awful SCOTUS rulings, including the ending of most life on the planet. 8/n

We're one SCOTUS vote away from gerrymandered state legislatures having the right to overturn any election they don't like the result of. That represents the end of American democracy, and another impetus for blue states to take they ball and go home. 9/n

https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1542520575892914176

Once we reach a point where it no longer matters how people vote, Republicans will always win the presidency (and that could be as soon as 2024), that's all folks. We implode, because there is ZERO incentive left for blue states to continue the charade. 10/n

When it is obvious to everyone in the public that the game is so rigged that blue states no longer have any meaningful say in federal governance, and that no amount of voting can alter this equation, it gets ugly FAST. 11/n

What incentive is there to participate in a system that seeks to punish you, but you cannot influence in any meaningful way, ever? Because you know the GOP is going to seek to punish California for it's "San Francisco values". And "liberal Hollywood". 12/n

The GOP wants a religious and cultural war, and is intent on ending any semblance of Democracy to get it. SCOTUS is giving them all the tools they need to wage it successfully.

In a deeply polarized nation (by geography and demographics), this is a recipe for civil war. 13/n