A Few Political Thoughts

Antonin Scalia died yesterday. He was a Justice of the Supreme Court and had served since 1986. He prided himself as being an “originalist,” one who considered the original intent and meaning of the Constitution as the principles by which cases should be understood and decided. It's a conservative view – one that frowns on the use of modern social concepts in the interpretation of the law. He was one of the conservative voices on a Court that alternated between liberal and conservative opinions with alarming irregularity. Its positions were not completely satisfactory to either constituency. Which was the cause of much anxiety among citizens whenever a case was to be decided about which they had strong opinions.

Antonin Scalia died yesterday. The President will now have the opportunity to nominate another candidate for the Court. He has already appointed two members – both staunch liberals reflecting his own political philosophy. Because they replaced one moderate liberal and one moderate conservative (though both had been appointed by Republicans) his appointments changed the nature of the Court. In all likelihood he will nominate another liberal to replace the conservative Scalia in an attempt to establish a firm liberal majority before his term in office ends. Because the Justices serve for life, such an appointment appointment would affect our society for many years.

President Obama will assert his right and responsibility to do so. It is his Constitutional duty. And he will contend that he is the only official elected by all the people and, thus, representative of their wishes. And he will remind us that it the duty of the Senate to pass judgment on his appointee. “Advice and consent” of the Senate are Constitutional requirements, and the Senators must not shirk their responsibilities. And if they do pass on his candidate, refusing to accept him or her, he will make a political year issue of their “obstructionism.”

President Obama will not mention that while he received 51.2% of the popular vote in 2012, he only had the approval of 43% of the population in 2014 (Pew). Any claim to his popularity and representativeness should be taken with those numbers in mind. And it is hard to ignore the fact that voters have since chosen Republican (conservative) majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The latter is more of a problem for the President who will challenge them to perform their mandated responsibilities as he performs his. He will not mention his end run around the Senate when he declared the treaty with Iran to be an “agreement” which does not require the Senate's consent. Indeed, he cajoled the Democratic minority in the Senate to prevent a vote there so he wouldn't have to veto Congress's will (and the will of the American people) which would lower his popularity still further. Put differently, he prevented the Senate from performing its Constitutional responsibility when it helped him to do so, but he will insist they perform it when he believes that this will be to his advantage.

It is my hope that they will remain firm and wait to see the will of the people in 2016 before making any decision on candidates put forth by the President.

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For better or worse, the United States, which was, at one time, the leader of the “free” world, has abandoned that designation. We once thought of ourselves as the world's “policemen” with the responsibility for protecting the weak from the tyranny of their leaders (primarily, of course, ones who disagreed with our policies). Our stance now is to defer to the United Nations and the European Union, and to the leaders of countries we once viewed as enemies. We talk and discuss problems. Perhaps that is better than taking a stand or taking action. As Churchill said, “To jaw-jaw always is better than to war-war.” But the recognition by other nations that we will only “jaw-jaw” gives them reason not to take our threats, red-lines, and deadlines seriously. In many senses we have returned to the isolationism of our past. Perhaps that is wise, but it implies the acceptance of injustices which we will permit to exist irrespective of our proclamation of American ideals.

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At the moment, the leaders in the race for the Presidential nominations are Donald Trump and Senator Bernard Sanders. Because they are both disliked by so many voters, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may enter the race. It would be an interesting lineup. In a country that spawned the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and numerous other similar crusades against the oppression by the rich of all of the rest of us, in addition to an avowed socialist our choice would be between two billionaires. And in a country with (according to the ADL) more than 10% antisemites among the adult population – a country that has always had a Christian President (we can debate about President Obama at another time) – two of the three candidates would be Jewish.

What a country.

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It's “silly season.” It's campaign time. That really started a long time ago and it's clear that some candidates for high office start planning their strategies many cycles in advance of their actual goals. Some countries limit the hullabaloo to a few weeks, but politics is an American obsession. We may not agree on anything else, but we love the time when we can argue. We all agree on that.

I'll probably discuss these issues again at another time, but I couldn't help commenting on them now. Silly season is contagious.