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“I Understand The Assignment”: The Case of Justice Tom Parker.

Posted on | July 22, 2024 | 6 Comments

Mike Magee

Without hyperbole, Project 2025 feels similar to Germany in the early 1930’s.

Their website introduction reads:

“It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day One of the next conservative Administration.”

Alabama’s 73-year old Justice Tom Parker is clearly one of those “right people.” He did not flinch in his February 16, 2024 decision in “LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine.” Citing an 1872 Alabama state law that allows for individuals to sue over the “wrongful death of a minor,”  he confidently declared that 8-cell embryos cryopreserved in fertility clinics were people.  He then added insult to injury. He tied  the decision to declaring that individuals  responsible for the mistaken loss of the cells liable for damages to the the state’s (Dobbs decision enabled) 2019 law banning abortion. A messy backlash against and for IVF soon followed. 

Not content to be both lawyer and doctor, Parker added theologian to his credentials stating in his decision:  “In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.”

Determined radicalized leaders, fueled with a religious fervor, long ago rejected the Founding Fathers commitment to separation of Church and State.

Consider the words of James Madison, in a speech to the House of Representatives in 1789: “The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.”

As we now turn the corner on our way to a November election, it is important to acknowledge that the threat we face is larger than Trump alone. To not acknowledge the leaders of Project 2025 and beyond at this moment in our history would be equivalent to believing that WWII was only about Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, when in fact the challenge was far greater than that.

Stated simply, the human species in the Axis societies had gone off the rails, and channeled themselves into a death spiral. “Breaking the spell” required unprecedented force and ultimately the use of atomic bombs, followed by multi-decade investments through the Marshall Plan to reestablish civilized human societies.

It is for this reason that “limping to the finish line” is no longer an option for our nation.  Project 2025, the Supreme Court’s recent Chevron decision, and the multi-pronged assault on women’s reproductive freedom all suggest that an overwhelming defeat of Republicans down ballot will be required to lay the ground for recovery of a healthy two-party Democracy.

Anything less will embolden an already captive Supreme Court and MAGA insurrectionists. A two party system of Democracy has delivered reliable and peaceful transition of power for over two centuries until 2020. One of those parties has been usurped, placing our treasured Democracy at risk. The quickest way to reset a viable two-party system is to decisively defeat Trump and all MAGA down-ballot allies across the United States in November.

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Comments

6 Responses to ““I Understand The Assignment”: The Case of Justice Tom Parker.”

  1. Larry McGovern
    July 24th, 2024 @ 8:20 am

    Thanks, Mike, for another thoughtful commentary.

    Would quibble with the statement that the implication that up until 2020, our democracy had a functioning 2-party system.
    Seems pretty clear, perhaps more in foreign policy than domestic, that at least since the Clinton presidency (some scholars make a good case from the Reason years), on so many essential issues, there has been basically no difference between the parties. One example even in the domestic area is how the Dems have abandoned the middle and lower classes, a major reason Trump garnered their votes won in 2016.

    Also, I am assuming you know that the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been shown to have been totally
    unnecessary. The use of the term “required” in the “Breaking the spell” sentence can give the impression that their use was in fact necessary.

  2. Mike Magee
    July 24th, 2024 @ 1:41 pm

    Thanks, Larry, for these important insights, and for your views on the position in history of our the U.S. use of atomic weapons. On the two party issue, I did not mean to imply that the past 50 or so years has been a model of perfection in Democratic or Republican behavior. In fact, one can clearly point to Clinton’s turn-around compromises in his second term, or the three decades of planning and scheming by Republicans that led to the takeover of SCOTUS and the creation of Project 2025, to show that human societies are deeply flawed when it comes to self-governance. That said, two parties add at least some partial checks and balances, and we now have 1 party and 1 mentally ill autocrat. As for the need for atomic bombs, I did not mean to signal a comfort level on my part with their use. Rather, I was suggesting that Republicans have “gone off the rail” and destroyed their foundational pilings. If a Republican Party is to ever reemerge, they must begin by voting themselves out of office, up and down the ticket, in 2024. Thanks, Mike

  3. Randy Sleet
    July 26th, 2024 @ 9:15 am

    Justice Tom Parker confidently declared that 8-cell embryos cryopreserved in fertility clinics were people. Through their menstrual cycle, billions of women of childbearing age according to Parker, impact the human race with devastating loses monthly. But it appears per the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama, holy God did not account for such a tremendous loss of people. I am not sure why holy God would have allowed Evolution the opportunity to perfect human procreation through mass murder. Albeit there is no historical proof that holy God is concerned with loss of life or the earth for that matter.

  4. Mike Magee
    July 26th, 2024 @ 1:07 pm

    Thanks, Randy, for shining a Parker light on the menstrual cycle… and the many vagaries and inconsistencies that surround humans “respect for life.”

  5. Lawrence Williams
    August 4th, 2024 @ 12:20 am

    Hey roomie. Yet another gut wrenching report on the continuing slash and burn tactics of the MAGA cult focused on our essential rights of self determination. Those are the freedoms which were hard won from the overreach of religious zealots hellbent on forcing their beliefs on the public at large. I feel reasonably certain this Judge Parker decision “characterized by a pompous and superior air of infallibility”(Thank you Oxford Languages) which sounds more like a papal bull than a reasoned judicial determination in a contested legal matter will find its way into the appellate apparatus and after numerous diametrically opposed judicial opinions will ultimately be overruled and consigned to the trash bin of decisions that are totally counter to our basic political foundation of freedom. But this is but one tiny fragment of the MAGA nation wide wave of asphyxiating neo-fascism. It is going to take decades to return our country to one based on government addressing the needs of the entire population not just the greed and wants of the most wealthy. It is going to require a Homeric effort by decent people from every political belief but without that struggle there will no longer be the United States of America.
    I send many grateful thoughts to you and Patricia every day. Take care my friends.
    Larry Williams

  6. Mike Magee
    August 6th, 2024 @ 12:20 pm

    As always, Larry, you bring me hope and determination. I especially focused on this sentence of your’s: “It is going to require a Homeric effort by decent people from every political belief but without that struggle there will no longer be the United States of America.” To this I say, “Yes, and with a smile!” And that is why the Harris-Walz ticket is so appropriate – This is a battle to celebrate (not shy away from) Democracy. And we are fortunate to have the “Happy Warriors” in the lead! Best, Mike

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