The nation is intensely divided. In the past, there was a shared vision of the future with differing ideas of how to get there. We no longer share that vision; we are now competing for the future. The game has changed.
It changed in 2000, when the veil of judicial nonpartisanship – that last bastion of apolitical governance – was lifted from our eyes after the conservative Supreme Court stole the presidency from democratic candidate, Al Gore.
Had the Supreme Court not intervened on the behalf of popular-vote loser, George W. Bush, who knows what world we might inhabit? We might be 18 years into a climate change reduction program. No Trump presidency. No Brett Kavanaugh. Instead, we have the world as it is: one in which a morally rotting, scientifically illiterate and demographically doomed coalition of angry, white men, led by the worst person in the United States, has defined the balance of power on the Supreme Court for the next 30 years.
A wild animal is most dangerous when it is backed into a corner; the dominant social class of rich, white men is making its final stand in the face of a demographic shift that is redirecting political power to a progressive coalition that embraces feminism, diversity, religious tolerance and welfare capitalism. Stealing a Supreme Court seat from Merrick Garland and placing Neil Gorsuch on the court as well as this weekend’s confirmation of Kavanaugh, may be their last chance to hold onto the power they stand to lose elsewhere through the mechanism of judicial lifetime appointments.
Neil Gorsuch is already an illegitimate justice. The American people chose who should nominate a justice for confirmation in the event of a February 2016 vacancy during the Presidential Election of 2012. They chose Barack Obama– that’s how the Constitution works. As such, Gorsuch’s tenure in Antonin Scalia’s, who passed in Feb. of 2016, seat is an affront to democracy.
Of course, Donald Trump should not have had any nominees confirmed. He is under investigation for collusion with a foreign government to win an election. Until the Special Counsel presents his findings, Trump cannot be allowed to name lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. Further, the president is an unindicted co-conspirator for campaign finance violations related to covering up his affairs. If he were not the president, he might have to defend himself in court. If it turns out that he won the 2016 election through illegal or conspiratorial means, then he is an illegitimate president with illegitimate nominees, be they Kavanaugh or anyone else on his list.
We are a center-left country staring down the barrel of a lifetime of far-right judicial rulings. That is undemocratic, unjust and unacceptable. It must be rectified: Democrats must take back Congress and the White House, and then they must pack the court in order to balance it. The Constitution does not mandate the Court have nine justices, and its size has fluctuated seven times in the past, ranging from five to 10 justices. There is as much a historical precedent as there is a modern necessity for the Court to be increased to 11 justices, so the next democratic President should add two liberal justices to the Court in order to right the wrongs of the GOP.
Court packing would invite retribution. However, the sake of the future demands action, and that retribution can be nullified if liberals turn out to vote. Fearing Republican retaliation is nonsense; doing the right thing, adhering to procedural norms, is just something Republicans take advantage of. The Bush v. Gore decision demonstrates that a right-leaning SCOTUS cannot be trusted to defend democratic values. The game has changed: vote for progressive Democrats this November, and in each November that follows, because we are competing for the future and liberals are going to win. We just have to make sure the other side doesn’t get to work the refs.
Dan Riley is a Collegian contributor and can be reached at [email protected].
NITZAKHON • Oct 10, 2018 at 1:09 pm
Would you like some cheese with that whine?
Yes, you’re right, liberals may very well win. Not because you have better ideas. Because you’ve replaced the population and taken over the courts. Because this is about you believing you are “philosopher kings” who are more noble and intelligent and educated. (Hint: you’re not.)
But your recommendation is typical. You didn’t win, so change the rules. What a bunch of pathetic soyboy SJW losers.
Amy • Oct 10, 2018 at 12:58 am
The court is becoming more balanced, more Americans are conservative than liberal. The court should reflect that.
Also the American people despite the lies/delusions of the left; don’t support liberals or liberal policies, that’s why the president, house, senate, state legislatures and governors are all majority…republican.. the first time in almost a century.
The reality is that liberals don’t’ respect the constitution, democracy, the American people or the judicial system. They want to manipulate it and got very good at manipulating our justice system and therefore the only thing that can be done is to tilt the judicial- system to the right to remove the politics of the left.
Liberals have a few remaining places of power that need to destroyed.
1. Court system. Now it’s tilted 5-4, ideally it should be 6-3. Also trump should get all his nominations for the federal court system, republican govenors should keep appointing judges and political abuse of the court system by liberals should be stopped.
2. Media. This very hard to counter balance. But ultimately competition in my opinion is the best way to destroy liberal bias in the media. The problem with the media is that it doesnt’ make money and it doesn’t attract new companies but it does attract liberals since they love spending other people’s money and don’t comprehend profits. I think ultimately liberal influence can be undone
3. Academia. Another hard thing , look at our university, it’s an unabashed far left college. Professors openly brag about using their courses to influence students, to interject their political opinions, diversity/social justice is pushed by the university itself with state funds, professors and intellectually have gotten very good at exploiting the taxpayer to push their agenda and idealogy.
Therein is the weakness; they can only do it with support of the taxpayer and government funding; without it they are unable to push things themselves and so the solution is public control of colleges and universities. Totally accountable to the people; reduced funding, civilian boards that can demote and fire professors, approve their tenure; all college documents open to public inspection; prohibition for colleges like umass to be racist(racial quotes/affirmative action), to harbor illegal immigrants(which the chancellor bragged about), to use state funding to push ideologies like social justice. To cut down or remove social sciences, humanities, only provide funding for business/natural sciences.
The left is in a weak position; although on the surface they act tough(and sometimes like rabid animals), the center and the right need to take advantage of that and destroy the left once and for all and we can bring back america not only to the pre-1960s but to it’s original roots as new nation separate from europe charting it’s own course.
Not some socialist, multi-racial, globalist non-sovereign freak show.