The nomination of now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has vividly displayed the vicious intensity of our nation’s left/right ideological warfare. Both sides have behaved like snarling hyenas trying to claim the same carcass.
That carcass is a Supreme Court that should be above party politics, and partial only to objective application and reasoned interpretation of the Constitution. Since Marbury v. Madison the nation has generally relied on the Supreme Court to render verdicts unfiltered by partisan agendas.
Maybe no longer.
Kavanaugh’s seething statements vilifying the Democrats, particularly Hillary and Bill Clinton (the right’s go-to bugbears), and his spiteful threat to retaliate against them, corroborates the left’s observation that he is a clearly partisan creature formed in the Orc pits of the conservative Federalist Society and handpicked to ensure that the Supreme Court has a dependable majority that will render verdicts compliant with conservative political, cultural and economic philosophies.
And, if anyone believes that the left is above partisan politics on the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a darling of the left, dispelled that notion when she made overtly political statements critical of President Donald Trump’s fitness to hold the office.
The brutal battle over control of the Supreme Court portends the partisan subjugation of the last bastion of honorable, unpurchased government at the federal level. The nation’s court of last resort could soon become just another partisan prize in America’s destructive ideological war.
The integrity of the Supreme Court had been precariously maintained by the presence of recently retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who over his tenure had emerged as the most unpredictable justice — i.e. the most likely to disregard ideology when deciding a case.
Indications are that U.S. Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland would have been that kind of justice too, but Senate Republicans wouldn’t even give him a confirmation hearing.
That’s because Republicans don’t want impartial justices on the court, they want reliably right-wing ideologues — and so regardless of Kavanaugh’s fitness or lack thereof, they have rammed him up America’s collective behind.
Any exposure to the media, especially social media, starkly reveals how deeply many Americans have descended into ideological idiocy. The discourse rages with superciliousness, blind hypocrisy and seething rudeness.
These people are so very certain that their belief system, conservative or liberal, is not only the superior approach to how society should be organized and has all the solutions to the nation’s problems, but also that the other side is malevolently wrong.
Clutching their ideological catechisms, these unquestioning dogmatists believe that in the entire universe of human thought there is only a simple dichotomy of “liberal” and “conservative” perspectives and possibilities.
But, point out their hypocrisies or ask for cogent fact-based arguments to support their contentions and you typically get indicted as a member of the other tribe, whether you are or not, and dismissed with parting insults to your intelligence, patriotism or morality.
Those impaired by ideological idiocy dominate the political forums because they are so noisy, not because they are the majority of Americans. Most Americans aren’t ideological dogmatists.
It is the ideologically agnostic Americans who must engage in the political process enough to undermine and begin to reverse the damage being done by the ideologues. When the left and right are publicly flinging feces at each other, it is not just because of their mutual antipathy, but also because they are trying to recruit political independents and political apathetics.
First thing to do as an independent is to maintain your objectivity and critical thinking, not succumb to ideological propaganda and hyperbole. If you want to engage a little, challenge the ideologues with questions of logic and facts.
I usually find this quite entertaining. Sometimes I am angrily dismissed as a “libtard,” and other times I am arrogantly dismissed as a “right-wing regressive” — just depends on which side I am dealing with.
Most important, independents must be informed voters who vote in both primary and general elections.
While American politics are dominated by the established duopoly, reasonable, honest people must be encouraged to run for office regardless of party affiliation. Elected public servants who turn out to be corrupt, incompetent or partisan toadies must be voted out as quickly as possible and new candidates found and supported.
Churning, with or without term limits, can minimize the harm bad politicians do and discourage the unfit from running in the first place. We must keep sifting through them until we find the good ones. Those we keep in office.
Third parties have typically been limited-interest parties appealing to rather small segments of the population. What America really needs is a new major party dedicated to the general welfare and to finding effective solutions to problems and threats without regard to petrified political ideology or obeisance to special interests.
We need a Party of Reason.
Until we have reasonable, ethical candidates, we must vote out politicians who are not. Let’s not tolerate people in office who are more dedicated to their party, to their personal enrichment or to their dogma than they are to the general welfare and the best interests of the country.
Whether they are Democrats, Republicans or whatever, candidates must learn that they will no longer be able to get away with leveraging their political office to benefit themselves, narrow interests or some static belief system.
Let’s be lions of reason and responsibility and drive off the hyenas.
— Randy Alcorn is a Santa Barbara political observer. Contact him at randyaalcorn@gmail.com, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.