The unbearable futility of rehashing 2016 at every turn

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     May 6, 2022 It's a small thing in the bruising week we've just had. But I couldn't help but cringe at the return of pussy hats and "Nasty Woman" shirts at some of the protests responding to the Supreme Court's draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. As I wrote in a column today, the reflexive urge to dust off resistance merch this week, amid a seismic gut-punch, feels woefully out of step with the cruel reality that’s been laid bare this week. That despite years of resistance, from the aesthetic to the ballot box, the right to legal abortion is about to get destroyed. But it's also a small embarrassment compared to the weird urge to relitigate so much of 2016 this week, as well as the curiously recycled messaging we've been hearing from our Democratic leaders: Arguably the most egregious bout of deja vu came from Democratic leaders, who in their scramble to respond to this week’s SCOTUS bombshell, [effectively copied and pasted language]( ripped straight from the Trump era in order to try to rally the base from despair. "The elections this November will have consequences because the rights of 100 million women are now on the ballot,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told a crowd one day after the SCOTUS leak. [If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is](. Meanwhile, most Dems still can’t come out and say the word "abortion." Sure, President Biden, in his first statement on this week’s leak, did manage to squeak out the word. But as [Rebecca Traister points out](, it’s no accident that it got buried four paragraphs deep in a statement otherwise cloaked in the safe language of a woman’s choice. With leadership like that, who can blame people for reaching for their RBG pearls right now? —Inae Oh Advertisement [Leyla McCalla]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [1 Million People in the United States Have Died of Covid]( At the beginning of the pandemic, Fauci said it was "very unlikely." Now, it has occurred. BY ABIGAIL WEINBERG [Trending] [The unbearable futility of rehashing the Trump years at every turn]( BY INAE OH   [The atrocities I saw outside Kyiv hint at monstrous discoveries yet to be made.]( BY CHARLES MCPHEDRAN   [Biden must start getting creative to protect abortion rights]( BY MADISON PAULY   [If abortion is illegal, will every miscarriage be a potential crime?]( BY CECILIA NOWELL Advertisement [Leyla McCalla]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [Abortion has always been a part of America—even if Alito won’t admit it]( The justice claims “this Nation's history and tradition” oppose the practice. Exactly whose history is he considering? BY BECCA ANDREWS [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755