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The Supreme Court

It is not entirely unjustified to point out that Republicans blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland for a year, and ultimately defeated it.  They played politics.

But if you study history, hyperpartisanship with regard to Supreme Court nominations, which have historically basically just asked “is this a good man or woman”, began with Robert Bork.  To “Bork” someone has entered our political lexicon.

And this process extends from the fact that increasing tribalization has forced us to ask not what is good for all of us, but what is good for one tribe or the other.

On the one side, Democrats want to continue the erosion of the Constitution, to continue reducing the protections of our civil liberties this document offers, and to continue to place a premium on selfishness, bias, and one-sided deals.

On the other side, because of this, merely asserting that you value the Constitution as written, that you value the freedoms of speech and religion, that you resent an omnipotent Federal government, that the government should fear the people, not vice versa, gets you labeled not just conservative but reactionary and evil.  Ponder this.

This whole Kavanaugh feels like a much more important fight than it should be.  For my part, I actually question Kavanaugh’s conservative bona fides.  I think he will be a more or less exact replacement of Kennedy, which means he will side with the Obama people from time to time.

But it feels to me like Republicans in Congress are fighting for the right of common sense, common decency, truth, and honest civic mindedness to continue to exist and prevail in our public domain, as against the attacks of lies, grandstanding, devious tricks, and ideological gerrymandering created by our media.

It’s maddening.

It’s hard to know the way forward.  But the way backwards, towards failure, is always as simple as giving up. It’s OK to be confused, unsure.  But it is not OK to quit making decisions, acting on them, learning from them, and trying to do better on an on-going basis.