Thursday, September 20, 2018

Hiring a Supreme Court Justice


Politics is an ugly business. It is compromise and trading of favors for other favors. The trouble this brings is twofold: first, the favors are hidden so the rest of us do not know what the price/cost is for the rest of us. Usually the price/cost is power, money or ‘chips’ to use in the future for the same thing.

Second, the frequency of compromise creates confusion of principles. In that atmosphere bedrock values and principles can get lost or subverted.

I think we know now just how subverted our national value structure has become. Sex, divorce, pornography, cheating, lying, collusion…so many sins we all know well, become common everyday behavior. Holding people to account gets lax. Wrong doers and evil doers get away with their calumny.

What’s good for one person now becomes OK for another. Standards disappear and chaos results.

We have that now. In the presidency. In the Senate. In the House. Our national government is riddled with hypocrisy and outright dishonesty. It doesn’t matter that it occurs in one party or the other; it happens in both. But that does not make it OK. For them or for the rest of us.

Same goes for a Supreme Court Justice. There is a cloud over one justice now on the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas. And there is a similar cloud over nominee Kavanaugh. Are they guilty? The process does not do true justice here. And yes, the job is so important that someone under that cloud should be rejected. Justice Thomas ought to resign. Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination should be withdrawn.

In today’s climate of distrust, no nominee should be advanced until the voters have a chance to address the political balance in congress. Those elections are just around the corner, less than two months from now.

Wait for the election results. Then revisit supreme court nominations. If the president’s political position is weakened, then wait for the new congress to be seated.

That is a just process to follow given the horror of the current malaise of principle and honesty.

September 20, 2018


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