I was reminded by an astute reader that we are a pluralistic society. And our government reflects this hodgepodge of competing interests. The problem with this is nothing gets done because we fucking fight over everything. Pluralism has devolved into partisanship, and that is why our government doesn’t function.
Perhaps that was the plan all along. There is a fair amount of writing on this subject in the Federalist Papers. Our republic may have been designed to check the power of the people by widening the sphere of participation in the national dialogue. What can you expect from a group of newly landed gentry? The Constitution was written ostensibly to give the gift of liberty to everyone(except slaves and non-property owners). It’s a good piece of work. However, it needs some fixing. It’s old and dated. We’ve done our level best to modify it and wring more freedom for people from it. And that’s the only way to change it now; I will probably die before we pass another amendment to the document.
So who is doing the fixing? The Supreme Court. They have been the drivers of social change in this land of confusion. It is a very important job, because Congress has abdicated its responsibility to govern correctly. Even the president is writing the law without bothering to consult these screwups. But the Court’s function is critical. That’s where the boundaries of liberty are either pushed outward or restricted.
I mean to underline in bold the need for us to choose insightful, inspired justices. Yeah, I know, ones that comports my decidedly liberal values. I’ll confess to that.
It’s almost time to pick a president. And he or she is the one that will do some picking of their own. Four of the nine justices are past the mean retirement age of 78. Every modern president has picked one justice per term.
If this isn’t a reason to get motivated to vote, I don’t know what to tell you, hoss. But I tell you this, your protest vote or non-vote will fuck this shit up. I’m talking to you, manic progressives. You too, Sandernistas. Have you seen what the other side is offering? So many of you are willing to cut off your nose to spite your face.
Hillary Clinton may be a friend to Wall Street and Israel, and I know how much these bugaboos get to you. But you are only serving the dark side with your insistence on ideological purity. That’s not what we do. That’s what the right traffics in. We are pragmatic and we get behind a winner. Failure to do so will pack our court with assholes.