Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Earth to Cynthia Ruccia

Yesterday I read about Clinton supporter Cynthia Ruccia, who is indulging in a fit of pique because HRC is, well, not winning:


Cynthia Ruccia, 55, a sales director for Mary Kay cosmetics in Columbus, Ohio, is organizing a group, Clinton Supporters Count Too, of mostly women in swing states who plan to campaign against Mr. Obama in November. “We, the most loyal constituency, are being told to sit down, shut up and get to the back of the bus,” she said.
Leaving aside Ms. Ruccia's incredibly poor choice of metaphor, I'd like to direct her attention to this report by Jeffrey Toobin about a recent speech by the man she would prefer to win the election:

[John] McCain plans to continue, and perhaps even accelerate, George W. Bush’s conservative counter-revolution at the Supreme Court....

In short, this one passage in McCain’s speech amounted to a dog whistle for the right—an implicit promise that he will appoint Justices who will eliminate the right to privacy, permit states to ban abortion, and allow the execution of teen-agers.
(Just as an aside, in addition to a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, the right to use birth control emanates from that right of privacy for which Ms. Ruccia apparently has so little regard.)

The question, as always with McCain these days, is whether he means it. Might he really be a “maverick” when it comes to the Supreme Court? The answer, almost certainly, is no. The Senator has long touted his opposition to Roe, and has voted for every one of Bush’s judicial appointments; the rhetoric of his speech shows that he is getting his advice on the Court from the most extreme elements of the conservative movement.

For all the elisions in John McCain’s speech, one unmistakable truth emerged: that the stakes in the election, for the Supreme Court and all who live by its rulings, are very, very high.

Perhaps Ms. Ruccia is living in a bubble that will protect her from those rulings. If so, would one of you please pierce it and clue her into the fact that the rest of us will have to live with those decisions and that this election is not about the dashed hopes and dreams of Cynthia Ruccia? Thanks.
Update: I see Ms. Ruccia met with O'Falafel last week. What a surprise.
Update II: in comments, thomasthomas points us to a post that fills in the blanks re Ms. Ruccia.

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