Progressive Non-Victories

Liberals are genuinely and understandably excited about the two huge victories for causes they support - same-sex marriage and legal abortion.  The same Supreme Court that gutted the Voting Rights Act ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act's ban on federal benefits for married same-sex couples are unconstitutional and also  let stand a lower court ruling rendering the ban on same-sex marriage in California unconstitutional, allowing that state to resume allowing same-sex marriages.

Also, Wendy Davis, a Texas state senator, yesterday filibustered a bill up for consideration in the Texas legislature that would ban abortions after twenty weeks and force the state's 42 abortion clinics to upgrade their facilities to the same standards as - and be classified as - ambulatory surgical centers, which would likely force all but five of them to close because of the prohibitive costs that would involve. She fell short of  preventing the Republican majority from acting before the midnight deadline to pass the bill because of a technicality or two, but Texas Senate Democrats were still able to prevent the Republicans from passing it in time.  

Pretty cool victories for the left, no? No.  I hate to pour cold water on the parties, fellow progressives, but one should bear in mind that the Supreme Court didn't rule that same-sex marriage was legal throughout the country, only that the federal government shouldn't short-circuit it in states where it is legal by denying couples federal benefits.  Most states still don't allow same-sex marriage.  And that anti-abortion bill that was stymied? It's going to be passed in a special session that "pro-life" Governor James Richard Perry - fresh from executing the 500th Texas death row inmate since 1982 - plans to call in July.  The rules that allowed Senator Davis to filibuster the bill this time won't be available to her next time.

Oh yeah, liberals and Texas Democrats are calling Wendy Davis a rising star.  In what? The Texas Democratic Party?  That's like being a rising star in one of the anti-Putin parties in Russia! Texas Democrats haven't won any statewide office since 1994, and with new voter suppression laws taking effect, they're not going to win diddly-squat in the next twenty-odd years, either.  

In other words, America is still a country centered to the right.  If you're an American progressive, you have much less reason to be happy today than you thought.

Oh well, at least Ed Markey is the new U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.