What history will remember about the Roberts' 6 to 3 Supreme Court

The Roberts Court will be remembered for three decisions that have had a profound impact on American politics and governance: Citizens United, granting presidential immunity, and removing protections against racial gerrymandering. These decisions will be their legacy. benefiting the powerful at the expense of the well-being of ordinary citizens in their pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.  

1. Citizens United is a decision that opened the floodgates of secret corporate money to influence who gets elected to public office and controls regulatory and tax policies.  Their considerations  now take precedence over the well-being of  common citizens, becoming poorer while they become richer. (Citizens United v. FEC (2010)

2. Granting of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution while acting in an official capacity. This has resulted in a president who is unconcerned about breaking the law or defying the Constitution.(Trump vs the United States, 2024) It has enabled the President to use fear, revenge, and threats. The result: the executive branch has been able to ignore the separation of powers by cowing Congressional opposition. It has avoided prosecution for any criminal acts, such as becoming rich and powerful from foreign investors, benefiting the President's own pocket and his family. He has also abused the power of pardon, extending that immunity to his staff by promising to pardon them in advance of his leaving office.We now have a lawless and out-of-control president who is taking advantage of the situation to benefit his power and wealth. Decisions he makes are, at a minimum, suspect of benefiting him personally rather than the ordinary people he governs. It gives him the ability to ignore public anger over the affordability of their day-to-day living because he believes he has the autonomous power to govern as he sees fit, and there is no power to stop him.

3. Permitting racist gerrymandering while piously or deceptively claiming they had eliminated race from consideration in the practice of gerrymandering because it is no longer a problem. In one swoop, they negated the civil rights movement of many years ago.( Louisiana v. Callais) , 2026 The result is the elimination of the ability and power of African Americans to have their voices heard in Congress and have the power to protect their civil and voting rights.  The white-dominant state legislatures in former slave states are now hurrying in advance of November midterms to redraw Congressional boundaries to eliminate an estimated 22 seats held by African Americans, moving African American voters into predominantly white-dominated districts.  Their stated reason is to maintain GOP seats and control of Congress this November, despite unfavorable polls.

Real populism is governing in public interest, not a small knot of elitist governing in their self interest

Real populism is governing in the public interest and not governing in the self-interest of those rich, politically connected, and the billionaires. One form of populism is economic. Another is techbro populism. Sadly, another form is racist. All are at work in America today, and more than one might dwell in the hearts and minds of some voters at the same time.

Economic populism is an easy concept to grasp. Recent articles in the Atlantic magazine have been focusing on the influence of the techno bros, the chiefs of high-tech industries, who are the recent drivers of anti-democracy fascist like influences in the White House and pubic policy. It explains why these newly minted oligarchs love Putin, Orban, and CPAC, as their businesses flourish when government is shaped to support their economic well-being.  The only population they consider is their own and not the rest of us.  

One of the characteristics of populist movements in the past, the Tea Party, and even MAGA has always been a resentment of elites controlling their lives and making their lives, working class and even many in the middle class, economically difficult.  This is largely based on economic concerns... especially since consumers are the ones who feel the pain. 

Techbro populism is another matter. The Atlantic's recent article by George Packer fingers the culprits as those who surround and influence Trump, such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and others. (JD Vance is a protege of Thiel. Musk, a native of South Africa, echoes the racist and elitist makeup of fascists of the 1930's and the apartheid supporters of the last century. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/06/david-sacks-crypto-ai-venture-capital/686941/

  This new techbro populism is the polar opposite of economic populism: These techbros want a government that helps their businesses and serves their interests, led by a small group of elites who run the government to advance their self-interested goals. However, another element has been part of the techbros mantra. It is anti-elite: extreme libertarian and "keep the government out of my business." However, it has recently changed. It is a new realization that government action is okay "when it helps my business through favorable tax and administrative policies". Libertarianism is a long-held populist concept held by many. "The best government is the least government" is their frequently uttered mantra. There is a strong anti-elitist streak in its followers.  Brotech populism is self-contradictory: it is both elitist and anti-elitist at the same time.  The impact, though, is anti populist and elitist. Techbros often do not care, or may not even grasp, what it is like to be on a budget for individuals and families. 'What's a few cents if gas at the pump rises?  They just do not get the uproar.

Such governance by rich elitists contains the seed of their own eventual destruction and will eventually be brought down by those whose needs are not met, as the rich and a ruling oligarchy become richer and those whose needs are not met become poorer. A lot of time and pain have to flow under the bridge before it dawns on the masses. It certainly happened to Viktor Orban in Hungary, as popular resentment of his oligarchical and corrupt rule resulted in economic pain. It became so strong that the masses of ordinary people overcame even Orban's suppression of the free press and political gerrymandering and took to a whisper campaign, quiet organizing, and the ballot box. Orban was defeated.

A few MAGA-ers have awakened to this challenge against their own interests. It is close to how the Trump administration is operating now, a rule by the rich, characterized by those techbro s who sat directly behind Trump when he put his hands on the bible for his second term. Trump's lust for respect by accumulating power and wealth is similar to the tech bros' goals. That is Trump's peer group, only he adds just the Mar-a-Lago type, very wealthy, who never have to worry about a budget, and Putin, rumored to be the richest one in the world, who he is influenced by and influences a loyalist group of oligarchs, too. 

Why do most MAGA turn a blind eye to Trump's peer group oligarchy and his attempt to Orbanize America? They shouldn't, logic dictates. What MAGA and liberals have in common is the ability to rise up through democratically protected peaceful means, such as through the ballot box or peaceful street demonstrations.  Preservation of democracy and a government that rules in the public interest, rather than the elite wealthy, should be and are common values, even if they are not yet realized or under threat. So what else is driving much of the MAGA if not economic populism?

I have a theory based on some observations: There is another streak of populism: racist populism. I suspect it is more powerful than economic populism in deep red states.  It has been characterized by Trump's appointment of white nationalists in key administrative positions and their obsession with the destruction of DEI, the continued use of racist dog whistles, and the reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision that gutted the civil rights era Voting Rights Act. This decision, pronounced with the piety of promoting fair elections by negating protections against racial gerrymandering, has accomplished the opposite. This decision instead is opening the floodgates to racial gerrymandering as Louisiana now works to eliminate Congressional districts represented by African Americans.  Now, under the cover of the SCOTUS decision, the former slave states' white-dominated legislatures rush to redistrict before and even during the campaigns for November 2026 and 2028. The estimated result is 22 African American congresspeople losing their seats while claiming racism has nothing to do with these actions. How stupid or naive do they think Americans are? 

 Those who get it and agree with the hidden messages in the dog whistles and racist redistricting remain quiet or find some other reason to support the racist intent of their representative in state legislators. They are, in a way, part of a populist movement. They show their consent by remaining quiet or voting for redistricting that is geared to remove as many African Americans from Congress as they can. while still voicing support for their white legislators. Racism as an openly touted value is still politically incorrect, but winks and nods masked in a variety of dog whistles are right there up front, conveying it in other ways. Their silence is deafening. and actions speak louder than words. Silence says as much as anything. Silence is a form of consent.

What are dog whistles? a simple explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8_fgJQHkOc.   

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/state-redistricting-battles-intensify-following-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-voting-rights-act

https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-tech-billionaires-zuckerberg-musk-wealth-0896bfc3f50d941d62cebc3074267ecd

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/white-christian-nationalism-has-taken.h

All politics is local, so national views on gerrymandering I have seen do not differentiate views based on race, but on politics.  Nonetheless, here are nationwide views. In short, most people are not well informed even on political gerrymanders.  https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/52740-large-majorities-americans-say-gerrymandering-major-problem-unfair-should-be-illegal-redistricting-texas-california-poll  

How Democrats get their messaging muddled

If I were writing stump speeches or had to find a way to get the best and strongest message across in an ad, here is how I would do it,

 Democrats have a way of messing up messaging by getting it backward and muddying the message. They put the cause before the effect. That requires too much deductive reasoning on the part of audiences. .  They also put " attack " terms in 3-syllable words, but not the way ordinary people speak.  Ideas: replace "retribution" with the word  "revenge" and "accountability 'with   "Hold X responsible for......".

Next: speak in short staccato bullet points, no more than four with examples and zingers

 1. Here's the pain you feel (i.e., cost, chaos and corruption...He gets rich, and you get poorer with crypto and tax, and administrative favors to loylaists). Reset it.  Problem with getting rich on foreign investments: he who pays the fiddler calls the tune, if not now, sooner or later. Emoluments clause in the Constitution  broken by Trump

 2. Why does Trump do it and how?  (amass power and wealth for himself; ignores laws or stretches them to the breaking point. ) Lame duck so does need to be responsive to voters and has immunity from prosecution.

3, Your MAGA opponent is an enabler.  Loyalty first to Trump, even when it hurts our constituents..so rubber-stamp and present examples, of course, gas prices and Iran, but so much more.

 4. What plans I propose to fix it (reform gerrymandering, getting rid of Citizens United, and stop dark money etc,, returning the Department of Justice to the purpose of law enforcement and not revenge against pllitical enemises etc, beefing up Obamacare), Democrats cannot just run on "I am not Trump" alone.I fear Democrats can get hung up on their own revenge crusade.

.

Trump's belief he can ignore bad poll numbers just got a boost from the Supreme Court

How can Trump ignore his plunging polls? In his ego-driven arrogance, he thinks he can control the outcome of the 2026 midterms and ignore popular sentiment. or even their vote count. Yesterday's Supreme Court decision is one of its many contributions to Trump's arrogance. (The others: Citizens United and presidential immunity from criminal prosecution) Plunging polls mean little to the officeholder who will not be a candidate in the next election...and Trump is a lame duck, free to feather his own nest while he can.

While piously claiming the decision that racial gerrymandering was a no-no, the Roberts court majority granted a victory to white southerners who objected to too much power being given to African Americans in drawing election districts. The current makeup results in 1/3 of the seats likely to vote for African American representatives, the same percentage of African Americans of the entire state, 30%. SCOTUS just okayed giving all seats except one to white-dominated voters, depriving the 30% of full representation in Congress. In short it was ok to give the white folks a disproportionate advantage, but not ok for the Black folks to get a fair share. ..if I understand the math ok. The effect of the decision couched in deceptive terms of fairness was to gut a main provision of a civil rights constitutional amendment, which would prevent racial gerrymandering resulting in racial discrimination in the first place. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/scotus-smothers-voting-rights-act-greenlighting-racial-discrimination-and-a-rash-of-gop-gerrymanders/ It now opens the door to other white-dominated southern states to do the same now and in the future in order to limit a proportional representation of their population.

Trump has plans to overturn the anticipated losses in the midterms and the will of the majority of the people. He is using the tools of gerrymandering, like this on race, seizing control of states' voting lists to target and suppress anticipated voters, grabbing vote machinethat tabulate the ballots, and using ICE paramilitary dressed for war in Afghanistan to frighten off brown people from voting at polling places in person, while eliminating mail-in voting by executive order..(A fool's errand given the Constitution that gives states such control). The Supreme Court yesterday gave the green light for racial gerrymandering, undermining a major thrust of the civil rights movement and, in the long term, attempting to suppress African Americans' ability to elect representatives. who support their interests.

The Roberts Court's contribution to Trump's arrogance is now furthered, yesterday, adding to the past rulings, with a gift of immunity from criminal prosecution to Trump, and its Citizens United decision permitting dark money to be contributed to candidates, opening the floodgates to epic corruption to influence government policies favoring them, and candidate corruption by secret corporate donations. Yesterday's blow was one more nail in the coffin of voters' power to shape their destiny, the essence of a democracy.