Ginsburg, McConnell & the Double Burden of Truth

I took my phone off airplane mode after the Rosh Hashanah evening service and the first text message from my friend Sarah streaming in from California read, “we got the news RBG died while you played the song of mourning.” My heart did not quite sink. It’s been a year of devastation. My heart is already in the deep. But there was also the strange beauty of it, the high priestess of the court ascending heavenward at the sacred occasion of the new year. The confluence of the day and her death a sign of her spiritual prowess -- the righteous choose their hour of ascent.

For a culture that lives by an ethos of the exchange of capital, the meaning of her death and life was quickly out-trumpeted by the machinations of politicians and their delusional logics. McConnell makes my stomach turn, the soullessness that’s overtaken his eyes, the callousness with which he spews words that convince no one of their gravitas.

But we expected he’d behave exactly as he has, and so the memes of RBG’s dying wish, or the quotes from senators who’d argued for the opposite approach under Obama ring only for Democratic ears and mean nothing. What is meaningful is to come to a greater understanding of the divergent ethos at odds here, and the greater burden that falls upon the path of truth and justice.

Often it is far easier to lie than to tell the truth. When truth is painful to hear, for example, that our great country was and is founded on the enslavement of Black people and the oppression of the poor, it’s easier to lie. When truths are difficult to hold together, for example, that life is incredibly precious and holy and that sometimes, for the sake of life, a mother will exercise her intuition to refuse it, it’s easier to pretend it’s either or. 

The pathway of truth carries a double burden. Out of a commitment to immutable principles beyond human tampering, ascetics of justice cannot meddle in deceitful means for the sake of just ends. Vermin like McConnell can do just that. And the God they serve, in all his privileged white Christian glory, is as flimsy as the bullshit they espouse to perform his works. 

But ours is an epic of inclusivity, and for the great poem to write itself through this awful moment we’re going to need to be more creative than resentful. Some of Justice Ginsburg’s most profound successes were achieved by teaching men why the exclusion of women was of concern to them. Until those who’ve been marginalized by progressive politics can understand why the expansion of compassion and rights is meaningful to them -- we’ve got no story. 

I don’t know the end. But I know the way there. The path to justice is through justice. The path of truth through truth.