I've learned a lot from the 5-4 podcast, but the most important thing is that *respect for the court as we think it should be* is precisely the cloak that allows the court's partisans to legislate without democratic accountability.

The conservative movement is fixated on courts because they're an anti-democratic sphere of power that can overturn the will of the majority in the ways the conservative movement wants and needs. THEY are the ones who see clearly what the courts are, not those who respect it.

It's a simple point, but a crucial one: These are people who wear robes to work.

How do you respond to someone who wears robes to work? Do you treat them like wizard-philosophers whose words carry mystical weight and power? Or do you recognize that wearing a robe is meant to disarm your basic ability to understand what's happening in front of you?

And so many people are deeply invested in hierarchical systems of anti-democratic and meritocratic authority! So many people want to believe in wizards in robes! But these are just unelected, lifetime politicians who make decisions shaping your life.

anyway, who wants to go in on a thousand "Impeach John Roberts" signs