I was talking on the phone yesterday to a politically oriented friend. Naturally we both shared our grave concerns about the invasion of the Ukraine by Putin, a ruthless megalomaniac obsessed with making Russia great again by bringing back the USSR empire.
After a while my friend changed the topic and said at least there was some good news here in America, namely that Biden made his final selection of his nominee to the Supreme Court—a black woman. I told my friend I didn’t consider his selection to be that big a deal. Yes, I understand she will become (hopefully) the first black woman on the Supreme Court, but we already have had black men on the Supreme Court and women on the Supreme Court. All Biden will be doing is substituting one liberal justice who is retiring, for another.
And the end of the day, the score will still be a lopsided 6-to-3 win for the far right-wing Republican conservatives. The right to vote will still be in jeopardy, threatening the foundation of our democracy. The right for a woman to have control over her own body—by being able to procure a safe, legal, affordable abortion—will still be in jeopardy.
We will still be stuck with Clarence Thomas, who doesn’t even try to hide the undue influence his wife has over his ultra-conservative Supreme Court decisions. We will still be stuck with Bret Kavanaugh, the would-be rapist who was too drunk to remember what he did. Kavanaugh was the swing vote on the Supreme Court that endangers democracy by keeping Gerrymandering legal. We will still be stuck with Amy Coney Barrett, who “has the most explicitly anti-abortion record of anyone confirmed to the Supreme Court since…2006.”
George Herbert Walker Bush made a shrewd political calculation when he nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush figured he could get Thomas on the bench by dividing liberals, about half of whom would object to Thomas because of his extreme right-wing agenda, and about half would not object because at least Thomas was black. The fact that Clarence Thomas lied his way onto the Supreme Court by denying Anita Hill’s brave testimony that he sexually harassed her, wasn’t enough to stop him from getting on the Supreme Court.
Let me be perfectly clear; I see absolutely nothing wrong with Biden’s nominee. My South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham, grouses that she is too progressive, but Graham had nothing bad to say about a black female nominee from South Carolina. Once again, a decision to support based not on who you are—your qualifications—but based on what you are, which in Graham’s case, being a South Carolinian was acceptable.
Yet we cannot avoid the truth that Biden chose his Supreme Court nominee, as he did his Vice-President, simply because she was a black woman. This obviously looks like progress as there was a time not too long ago when neither a woman nor black person, nevertheless a black woman, would be nominated for the Supreme Court.
For the record, my top three favorite candidates running for President in 2020 were Bernie Sanders (Jewish), Elizabeth Warren (female), and Kamala Harris (black female.) I was delighted when Biden chose Kamala Harris to be his running mate, not because she was a black woman, but because she is so qualified to be President after Biden. Moreover, it saddens me that so many Americans preferred the least competent candidate, Donald Trump, over one of the most qualified candidates, Hillary Clinton; simply because Trump was a white male.
I have just read an unfinished autobiography of Isidor Straus, which my daughter got me for Christmas. Our family has good reasons to believe Isidor Straus, was my grandfather’s grandfather. Isidor Straus was famous for three reasons: (1) He was the founder of Macy’s department store in New York; (2) he gave up his seat on the lifeboat (and his life) when the Titanic was sinking because he didn’t want his wealth and prestige to prevent woman and children from being saved from the sinking ship; and (3) he was a member of the House of Representatives during the administration of Grover Cleveland. In this book, there is a letter written to Grover Cleveland in 1887. Although Straus and Cleveland corresponded back and forth, this letter was written by one Henry Ward Beecher. It implored Grover Cleveland to not rescind his nomination of Oscar Straus, Isidor’s brother, to be ambassador to Turkey. The reason Cleveland was hesitant to nominate Oscar Straus was because the Straus family was Jewish.
Dear Mr. President
Some of our best citizens are solicitous for the appointment of Oscar Straus as Minster to Turkey. Of his fitness there is a general consent that he is personally, and in his attainments, eminently excellent.
But I am interested in another quality—the fact that he is a Hebrew. The bitter prejudice against Jews, which obtains in many parts of Europe, ought not to receive any countenance in America…
Is it not, also, a duty to set forth, in this quiet, but effectual method, the genius of the American Government?—which has under its fostering care people of all civilized nations, and treats them without regard to civil, religious, or race peculiarities as common citizens?
Grover Cleveland was apparently persuaded; Oscar Straus was appointed Ambassador to Turkey in spite of the fact many at that time advised him not to appoint someone who was Jewish.
A lot has changed in 135 years. Now it is politically correct to select a nominee to the Supreme Court because of gender and race, rather than in spite of it. I have no doubts Ketanji Brown Jackson is also a person who is “eminently excellent.” What I wonder is whether Biden is simply taking advantage of today’s racial climate, where just as Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden didn’t want to object to Clarence Thomas’s nomination because he was a black man; Biden figures many Republicans won’t want to oppose Jackson because they don’t want to appear opposed to a black woman.
Yet I also wonder, assuming our democracy isn’t destroyed by Republicans, how many years must come and go before a President of the United States can appoint a nominee to the Supreme Court, not in spite of his religion, gender, or race; not because of his religion, gender, or race; but simply because religion, gender, and race doesn’t matter—what matters is only choosing the most qualified candidate.
In the meantime, what bothers me is that picking a black female with great qualifications to replace another liberal, isn’t enough to save our endangered democracy. What Biden needs to do—indeed all Democrats need to do—is to push for the Supreme Court to be expanded to eleven Justices, thus allowing Biden to choose two more Justices without anyone else resigning or dying. When the score is 6-to-5 instead of 6-to-3, there is a far better chance of catching up and eventually winning.
Biden appointing Jackson isn’t a bad thing. It just doesn’t do much at a time when our democratic system of government is hanging by a thread. In 2024 the Democrats might win again, only for various Republican controlled states to use questionable legal methods to nullify the results and declare the Republicans the winner. And who eventually will have to decide if these nefarious tactics are indeed legal, even if they obviously thwart the will of the people? The Supreme Court.
Adding two new members to the Supreme Court, so there are eleven justices rather than seven, will not eliminate the roles now played by Clarence Thomas and other repugnant Republicans, but it will certainly diminish their influence; and hopefully help preserve the rights and freedoms the Supreme Court was created to protect.
