Justice Roberts
I’m on sabbatical from my regular consulting work, the weather in Seattle has been beautiful this month, I just got married, just got back from my annual fun-fest in San Diego, and am taking an art class to dust off my extremely rusty figure-drawing chops, so politics is not exactly the first thing on my mind. It is only with passing interest that I noted Bush named someone to fill Sandra Day O’Connor’s spot on the Supreme Court.
I’ve never heard of John Roberts, but I have no reason to assume he isn’t a totally reliable vote on all the issues that really matter to the Republican elite. As I’ve stated elsewhere, I think that where he stands on Roe vs. Wade is entirely incidental to the actual GOP judicial agenda, which is more about removing public checks on the power of private and corporate interests, devolving regulatory issues to the states (where powerful interests can prevail more easily against a divided and inattentive public and less rigorous government), and narrowing the interpretation of the interstate commerce clause, which has been the primary mechanism for the expansion of federal government authority since 1937.
This is slightly depressing, but it’s been in the cards since last November. When Democrats don’t win elections, the Republicans get to do things like name Supreme Court Justices, propose and block legislation, issue and interpret Executive orders and regulations, appoint the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and decide what secrets to keep and which to disclose. People should remember that when they need to declare bankruptcy and find the playing field dramatically slanted in favor of creditors; when they need to hold a large company legally accountable for some egregious act of irresponsibility and discover their opportunities for recovery have been capped to protect the culprits; or when members of their families require medical services that someone in Washington has decided are immoral, and therefore unavailable. They should remember it when they go to collect their pension and find the coffers have been looted by company management, who then walks away scott free, at the same time that right wing politicians are doing their damnedest to do away with Social Security.
Our elections are contested as if they were sporting matches, with the only stakes being the bragging rights of particular tribes of partisans. Now we find out why these things matter. The last election was fairly close. How many people voted against John Kerry because they believed scurrilous and flimsy lies about his Vietnam service record, because they didn’t like his wife, or thought he had a stupid haircut? How many people projected their own moderate views onto Bush, despite all the evidence of his extremist ideology and tactics? Well, their votes have helped to put this Roberts on the Supreme Court, where he will certainly be a dependable friend to the powerful, impacting the lives of millions of Americans for the next 30 years.
Sure, Democrats remain slightly effective at the margins. We’ve so far managed to block a candidate for UN Ambassador so odious that Richard Armitage and James Baker can’t stand him, and keep a few crackpot judges off the Federal bench (at the cost of allowing a few who shouldn’t be allowed within 100 feet of a courtroom). And, of course, we can stand back and observe the corruption, self-righteousness and secrecy that are the emblems of Republican government to surface in ways that disgust ordinary citizens in staggering numbers.
But that’s about it. If Bush thinks John Roberts is the right man to fill the shoes of Sandra Day O’Connor, the most we can say is, “I think not.” And even if that were to carry the day (if, for example, it were revealed that Roberts was actually the guy who kidnapped that girl in Aruba), we can be certain the next nominee will be just as bad or worse.
Perhaps this is the point where it becomes obvious that Bush is not interested in moderation, not interested in compromise. The narrower his mandate, the lower his support, the more he moves to the extremes as a way to solidify his base. Some are declaring victory because Roberts is not an obviously-inflammatory candidate. Well, we’ll see. He’ll be on the Court a good long time from the looks of him, and America will be living with the consequences of the 2004 election well into the third decade of the 21st century as a result.
9:51:40 AM 
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