The past few days have been pretty hard for me to take. Ever since O'Connor announced her retirement my stomach has been in a constant knot. I'm starting to think I need a Nexium prescription to deal with the nightly reflux I get when I watch the news and listen to the pundits talk about the vacancy.
While I wasn't a O'Connor fan club member, I can say that I respected her position on a number of issues. And while I wouldn't appoint her if I were president, I could live with her on the court for several more years...
The thought of a Scalia/Thomas clone taking her place nauseates me to such a degree that I could barely sleep...but with that said, I think the Democrats need to confirm Roberts and move on.
Illogical? I think not...the rest follows
Democrats, whether we like or not, have been labeled by Republicans as obstructionists intent on objecting to popular will. We haven't been quick enough to respond to these attacks, and must live with the label until we figure out a way to rebrand ourselves.
So here's our first salvo: Put up a strong representation of our minority party positions. Be respectful, to the point, and certain to represent our constituency when asking Roberts the tough questions. But whatever we do, we simply can't go through the stall tactic motions. We all know this man is going to be confirmed. He's not a complete Scalia/Thomas clone. That alone is a victory.
But this should all be part of a longer term solution. We can talk all we want about taking back the Senate in '06 or even in '08. But I think we all overestimate our party's ability to reinvent itself in such a short period of time. I'm not even sure that in contemporary America that such a reinvention is possible. Americans simply have too short of an attention span to grasp the severity of the consequences of their decisions...
I thought the war would wake Americans up about their poor political choices...but we've all learned that the losses and costs are too distant for them to really change political behaviors. What needs to happen is for something adverse to start to happen to them.
I'm not even sure that Roberts will usher in a right-wing assault on privacy rights, environmental laws, and labor laws. His comments on these areas are deftly devoid of any detail that could aid us in attacking him. But I almost wish that his ascendency to the court would usher in such an era in American political history.
I am convicned that the only way Americans will wake up to the grim reality of their political choices when they are forced to confront them in their day to day lives.
Women will realize that their medical decisions are no longer a private matter to be decided with their partners and doctors. Mothers will realize that their neighbors are having to send their 8 year old to work to help meet the bills. And when we all wake up in the morning to black soot in the sky...nothing will remind us more of hte consequences of our decisions.
I'm hopeful that such drastic and horrible consequences aren't necessary. But I believe that they are.
Confirming Roberts accomplishes 2 tasks. First, in the short run we drop the obsructionist image. Second, it starts in motion what seems to be an unavoidable Republican assualt on our personal freedoms. And I think when they start to do that...that's our opportunity to pounce.
Americans aren't going to change parties because Karl Rove leaked confidential information. They'll forget that even happened come election time. Paradigm shifts of that magnitude requires a jolt to the system. This is that jolt. It's an inevitable jolt given our political losses of the last 20 years.
And now is the time to start thinking about the end game, not the next election.