Congratulations Mitch McConnell, for singlehandedly (although you had a lot of support) destroying the last remnants of what should be an independent Judiciary. Not only did you decide not to hold hearings for president Obama’s eminently qualified Supreme Court nominee, but your petulant, immature strategy worked.
Because you and your republican colleagues felt it more important to hold a spot for someone from your own party, rather than to hold in high regard the prospect of a more perfect union through an independent and unbiased Judiciary, you have allowed the Supreme Court to become a completely partisan entity, along with the other branches of government.
Please understand that I have been angry about the American political process in the past. In 2000 when the Supreme Court decided to discontinue counting votes in Florida, that’s when I felt democracy, or whatever semblance of democracy this country had at the time, was no longer of any value. One of the primary ideals in this country is was the right to vote and have one’s vote counted. Once the Supreme Court decided to eliminate one of the pillars of this institution, that, for me, signaled a clear shift in values.
But even before that, the American people were faced with the realization that a person can be above the law, when Richard Nixon was pardoned by Gerald Ford. Ford said he did it in order for the country to heal after the Watergate scandal, but my own opinion is that it was in that instance where politicians let the American people know that rules are different depending on your status, and that began to pave the way for the eventual travesty that is Trump/McConnell/Ryan.
Most recently, I was angry at Mitch McConnell, only because in his position as senate majority leader, it was his duty to put procedure and process above politics and to bring forth the nomination of Obama’s pick for the vacant Supreme Court seat due to the death of Antonin Scalia. That McConnell refused to do so was a clear indication that he does not respect the foundation of the United States Constitution if it does not benefit him and his party. This I feel is an egregious disservice to the nation and to the Constitution.
Moreover, because of McConnell’s refusal, I believe that Judge Gorsuch, out of respect for his colleague, Judge Merrick, as well as respect for the very Constitution that he took an oath to uphold, should refuse to accept the nomination without the Senate holding confirmation hearings for the person originally nominated for that position, Judge Merrick. However, I know this scenario will never happen and that the conservatives are bursting with glee right now because they have played the game and stacked the deck in their favor and the finish line is before them.
By shutting down the government at times, and obstructing most if not all of president Obama’s efforts to enact policy and actually govern, the republicans have demonstrated their utter disdain for the tenets of the Constitution and representative democracy. Their hypocrisy is blatantly apparent now, if it was ever in doubt, and they have effectively reduced the noble ideals and soaring vision of the Constitution, to an unscrupulous high school debate team that refuses to play if they don’t get their way, and are willing to change the rules in the middle of the contest for their own benefit.
The most disturbing part of all this is the way so many of our elected officials are on board with this behavior, and do not care about the damage these events do to the democratic ideals, as long as their “team” wins. Unfortunately, too many of our elected officials treat this as a game of winners and losers when the fact is, it is not a game; this is our democracy. It is a disservice to the American people that our representatives have not treated it with the respect it deserves to survive.
Now, having invoked what is known as the nuclear option, and completely changing the Senate rules only to favor the choice of most of the republicans, they will be able to turn back the clock, reject the rights of voters, workers, and women throughout this country, and they will be able to do it with the blessings of the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, in bending the system in their favor, they have effectively eliminated any sense of fairness and equality that the Constitution set out to establish.
In order for the system to function, people in office need to have enough integrity to adhere to the way the Constitution should work for ALL the people. However, as strict Constitutionalists as many of the members of Congress claim to be, perhaps they are, indeed, making the union into the way it was when it was first formed, when the rights of many were non-existent. This stacking of the deck seems to suit Mitch McConnell and the rest of the republicans just fine.