One Strike, One Home Run
Miers is out, Alito is in. Reactions to the new nominee are following sadly predictable lines. Do any of these guys actually think, or do they just jerk the ol' knee?
Here's a typical piece from the left, in this case The Daily Kos. Note the dripping vitriol and unrelentingly foul language.
Here's one from the right, this being Michelle Malkin. Not a whole lot of swear-words in this one.
Apparently Alito is near the top of the list of the right's dream choices for Supreme Court (as opposed to Miers, who came completely out of the blue). Looking over his record, he seems a solid jurist with a good respect for constitutional law. So of course the left hates him. The Democrats may be overestimating the willingness of the public to put up with their nonsense this time . . . if they filibuster, it will likely be widely perceived as pure obstructionism. Best bet is to have a couple weeks of hearings and then an up or down vote.
There's a reason I named my blog "Fulcrum Ruminations". One of the big themes in American political life I've noticed is that everything is very much on a pendulum. The country swings back and forth between being conservative and liberal (in the classic sense of those words, not the modern corrupted versions). The stuffy uptight Fifties, for example, were followed by the wild "anything goes" Sixties. The "me" decade of the Eighties is followed by the kinder, gentler Nineties. And so forth.
The Supreme Court has swung to the left in the last few decades. Now it's correcting back to the right. Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now it will go back the other way. The important thing to remember is that this is not the end of the world. Just because your particular political philosophy is not in ascendance at the moment does not mean America is about to dissolve into chaos. Get over yourself. For the side that's on the downward swing, this is the time to self-examine (which the Left desperately needs to do right now, as far out of touch as they've gotten) and reconsolidate. Get your house in order, because you need a better argument than "well, those guys suck and we're not them!" to win elections.
And for God's sake, if you ever expect to be a force in politics again, stop telling half of the electorate that they're stupid. The red state/blue state rubbish has to stop.
Here's a typical piece from the left, in this case The Daily Kos. Note the dripping vitriol and unrelentingly foul language.
Here's one from the right, this being Michelle Malkin. Not a whole lot of swear-words in this one.
Apparently Alito is near the top of the list of the right's dream choices for Supreme Court (as opposed to Miers, who came completely out of the blue). Looking over his record, he seems a solid jurist with a good respect for constitutional law. So of course the left hates him. The Democrats may be overestimating the willingness of the public to put up with their nonsense this time . . . if they filibuster, it will likely be widely perceived as pure obstructionism. Best bet is to have a couple weeks of hearings and then an up or down vote.
There's a reason I named my blog "Fulcrum Ruminations". One of the big themes in American political life I've noticed is that everything is very much on a pendulum. The country swings back and forth between being conservative and liberal (in the classic sense of those words, not the modern corrupted versions). The stuffy uptight Fifties, for example, were followed by the wild "anything goes" Sixties. The "me" decade of the Eighties is followed by the kinder, gentler Nineties. And so forth.
The Supreme Court has swung to the left in the last few decades. Now it's correcting back to the right. Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now it will go back the other way. The important thing to remember is that this is not the end of the world. Just because your particular political philosophy is not in ascendance at the moment does not mean America is about to dissolve into chaos. Get over yourself. For the side that's on the downward swing, this is the time to self-examine (which the Left desperately needs to do right now, as far out of touch as they've gotten) and reconsolidate. Get your house in order, because you need a better argument than "well, those guys suck and we're not them!" to win elections.
And for God's sake, if you ever expect to be a force in politics again, stop telling half of the electorate that they're stupid. The red state/blue state rubbish has to stop.
posted by Lanz at 9:49 AM
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