Prominent Republicans have subtly threatened violence, retribution and impeachment against our nations "activist judges". Over the course of the last few weeks we've heard words like these:
"the filibuster against people of faith", "unfairly re-written law", "arrogant judges", "judicial supremacy", "unaccountable for their actions" and the list goes on and on.
This is the theme of our time, the melody having been played in unison by "conservatives" for years finally bubbling up to a grand climax this year. You'd think we live in a time when there was total liberal control of the court system and the courts were taking an unjustified power-grab. This sentiment can only be further than the truth.
Reality Check
GOP appointed judges already have a lock on 10 of 13 federal appeals courts. As few as 3 more lifetime appointments on key courts would tip the balance in favor of GOP appointees on all but one of the nations 13 appeals courts - the Ninth US Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco. The Supreme Court is also a conservative court, having stopped the counting of Floridian votes in 2000 and affectively selecting the president of the United States.
The issue at hand is the Republicans want total power. They are using tools of harassment, threats and fear to squeeze out any remaining forces that stand in the way their evil ideology. They are trying to change the rules to deny the filibuster, a tool created by our founding fathers to be used to stop the appointment of the most radical judicial appointees. This congress has used the filibuster judiciously, allowing over 200 of the presidents conservative appointees to be confirmed. They've only blocked his most extreme choices only 10.
History Lesson
The founding fathers created the judicial branch of government to act as a check and balance against unconstitutional legislation from being passed. They realized that lifetime appointments would in a sense protect our nation against changing too quickly or over-reacting to unusual circumstances. Its purpose makes sense. Congress and the Presidency can change with the times, swing like a pendulum if you will. But the third branch of government's purpose is to maintain a sense of conservatism where changing times will not cause an overreaction such as the loss of rights, or the denial of our constitutional guarantees.
Drunk with Power
I think the republicans are finally drunk with power and this drunkenness will lead to their demise. Threatening a branch of government with equal power to your own; threatening to bring down its power if they disagree with you is scary. Maybe the republicans should start following the old saying "slow and steady wins the race" because trying to quickly reshape the judicial branch through means of this intimidation isn't going to work or it could even blow up in their faces. Imagine if the Democrats regain control and can freely appoint anyone. We could have abortion on demand in just 4 years from today. These filibuster rules prevent this kind of change from happening.
On a side note, I saw a video yesterday from 1993 of congressional Democrats discussing the same thing: Getting rid of the filibuster to prevent Republicans from using it against their pro-choice judges. Remember that times change and making it this easy to reshape the judiciary isn't wise. It's not good for Republicans and it's not good for Democrats. It just makes America a scarier place to live in.