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This isn’t personal. I bet I would have liked O’Connor. But her vote on Bush vs. Gore all but guaranteed the climate collapse.
Whatever his flaws, Al Gore is and has long been a passionate climate activist. This was true more than 20 years ago when he ran for president and won the popular vote by more than half a million votes.
In a 5–4 decision on a weak and questionable basis, and along party lines, the Supreme Court vetoed the voters. They prevented the people’s choice — a passionate climate activist — from taking office. Instead, they put a Texas oil man into the highest office in the land.
The rest is history. Or, as seems increasingly likely, the end of history and the end of a habitable, human-friendly Earth.
O’Connor could have voted differently. Admittedly, even a climate friendly president would have had a difficult time protecting our planet in our oil money-infested political system. But there’s no doubt that Gore would have made a huge effort and our chances would have been substantially better.
Sandra Day O‘Connor prevented our civilization from having even that modest chance. The vote was 5–4. She COULD have swung the result in favor of life. She didn’t.
