Sotomayor: Republican's Waterloo

“Once again, AVOID the breach, dear friends!” (The battle cry of the modern Republican Party)

 

I long for the days of political dissent. Not the politics of personal destruction that has been equated with political dissent in recent years, but true, honest, passionate debate on issues. For a myriad of reasons, debate over issues is a thing of the past. At the forefront is an unwillingness to offend anyone; an unintended (or intended, as it really is) consequence of political correctness.

 

The Republican Party has been beat down into total submission. Republicans have heeded the warnings of people like Sen. Chuck Schumer who warns Republicans not to oppose Judge Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court. So, dutifully, they won’t. They fear being called racist, segmenting the Hispanic vote, and opposing a popular President (also for fear of being called racist for doing so).

 

It seems that Republicans will not confront Sotomayor on the issues: mainly she’s an activist judge who believes in legislating from the bench, that justice should be meted out based on emotion, oh, and she’s a bigot. She believes she can better judge because she is Latino than can a white man. That’s a bigoted comment. But she can get away with it 1. because she is a minority and is incapable of bigotry (a tenet of political correctness) and 2. the Republican Party is impotent and refuses to enter such a fray.

 

Failure to enter said fray may be the death knell of the Republican Party. Many (mostly those on the left and power hungry self-servers among Republicans) say that Republicans have to moderate in order to survive. That’s a recipe for certain failure; that’s why they are saying it. The Republican Party has moderated, i.e. John McCain, and look what happened with him.

 

Sotomayor is unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court. Not because she is a Latino woman, who cares about that. It is because she has contempt for the legislative process and thereby our system of government as a whole; demonstrated by her saying “the court of appeals is where policy is made”. No, the court of appeals is where the judicial process takes place; without passion, emotion or prejudice. Policy is made by lawmakers, not judges. Sen. Schumer also has said, speaking of Sotomayor’s impending appointment that "I don't think any American wants nine people on the Supreme Court, all of whom have ice water in their veins." Wrong. Ice water is the life blood of jurisprudence. (And by the way, Chucky, quit putting words into my mouth; you are anathema to everything I believe as an American).

 

Conservatives like me are looking for elected leadership in the Republican Party. It’s not there. We’re busy in-fighting and trying to get along with our opponents, all the while missing golden, nay platinum, opportunities to define and contrast ourselves with the Democrat Party. This road to moderation of the Republican Party is only leading to perdition.

 

BQP