Slate says that Trump selecting a new justice before the election means that we are living in a failed state. My response to you is this: If you think that the Supreme court is there to pick sides in political fights and manipulate the Constitution to whatever ends the party in power deems expedient, then we are already in a failed state.
The Supreme court was never intended to be an elected board of directors for the nation, yet that is what it has become. The states were never intended to be mere subdivisions of the Federal government. The Federal government was supposed to be a subservient arbiter of interstate disputes- a Republic. I would argue that the original idea of our Republic became ill during the Lincoln administration, went into a coma with the passage of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments, was placed on life support during the FDR administration, and died in 1968. Our nation has been a rotting corpse since then.
I think you're exactly right.
ReplyDeleteIowahawk recently tweeted something like, "if you're in a nation armed to the teeth with nuclear warheads and you think the biggest threat is who sits in one seat on a court, it's already in trouble." (I probably butchered that)
The supreme court isn't supposed to set policy, they're supposed to interpret the intent of the constitution and decide if new laws violate that or are acceptable. It's reasonable for the court to decide, that free speech applies to a technology that didn't exist when the constitution was written (like blogging), but it's not reasonable to rule something that existed at the time (like rapid-firing guns) was not included. When virtually every decision comes down to voting along the party whims of whomever nominated the justices, it's broken.
This, virtually all of our societal trouble right now, is a direct result of big government. Madison warned us 233 years ago about this exact scenario, where everyone coalesces into two, and only two, competing camps, where each is fighting to get to 50.1% of the national vote so they can oppress the other 49.9%. They put in a bunch of safeguards to keep this from happening, but as you point out, we've blown past all of them.
ReplyDeleteMay God help us all, and keep your powder dry. And pray for Trump. He's our only hope. God often works in very mysterious ways, after all.
"The supreme court isn't supposed to set policy, they're supposed to interpret the intent of the constitution and decide if new laws violate that or are acceptable."
ReplyDeleteThat's not really accurate. They are supposed to apply the Constitution and decide if the challenged law is within the (very clear) limits set by said Constitution. The fact that it became acceptable for the SC to 'interpret the intent' is the main reason the mess we're in has gotten as bad as it has.
Yeah I can see that.
ReplyDelete