I’d like to expand upon Rebecca Boulos’ concern about the three recent Supreme Court decisions on guns, abortion and air pollution (“Commentary: Recent SCOTUS decision threatens the health of all people,” Aug. 13).

The first two decisions were awarded to voters scared into a frenzy about their loss of gun rights and concepts of sex and morality. The Republican Party has used these people since Richard Nixon contrived the silent majority, and Ronald Reagan discovered the religious right as strong voting bases that would let them dismantle government infrastructure and regulation that their big-monied donors were ultimately seeking to eliminate.

“The deep pockets of polluting industries” (as Boulos puts it) also could not care less about guns and abortion except that they provided a basis of fear to scare these voters into voting against their own self-interest, not only on air pollution but also on job safety, wage stagnation, excessively high corporate salaries, lower taxes for the rich, higher taxes for the middle class and a pathetic decline in our country’s infrastructure.

Polls show a majority of Americans want gun control, protection of the privacy of women’s reproductive health and oversight of polluting industries, yet the Republican Party has successfully used fear to mobilize a minority to elect politicians who will pass laws allowing industry and corporations to do as they please. The recent decisions by the six activist judges on the Supreme Court will indeed have a negative impact on the health of all Americans, including those who voted for the politicians who confirmed these judges.

Richard Hackel
Chebeague Island

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