5 to 4: The Republican Coup
By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Last week I mentioned that, with a couple of notable exceptions, George Bush didn’t do much for his party. The exception we explored was the growing extremism Dubby fostered by ignoring fact in favor of conservative fancy and pushing ideology rather than responsible policy. There is, however, another accomplishment for which we might blame or thank him, depending on our party affiliation and our desire to live on into a new era or perish like the mastodon. The GOP has largely forgiven their lesser Bush a plethora of fiscal indiscretions and policy gaffes based on his appointment of two hard-core Federalist ideologues to life-terms on the Supreme Court of the United States, also known as SCOTUS.
Of the three branches of government, the judicial is the one to which we give the least attention, and we pay a staggering price for our ignorance. The slow erosion of our social norms follow judicial changes that we seldom notice, another example of the truism that all politics are personal and we all enjoy or suffer their consequences. We fancy ourselves a nation of laws, yet again and again we discover our laws slowly eroded and tarnished. For reasons beyond my ken, we seem shocked to find justice used as a political pawn.
If the legislative and executive branches form the body and brain of our government, then SCOTUS is the bones upon which everything else hangs. With the Constitution as its true north, SCOTUS is designed to be the tie-buster, issuing the final word for contentious cases that come up through the lower courts. Once a decision is made by SCOTUS, the only recourse is through congressional bills redefining the matter. And after taking the oath, a Supreme Court candidate becomes a high court judge for life. Abiding by no formal code of ethics, Supreme Court justices can only be removed from office by impeachment. Talk about yer job security!
We need to pick these people a little more carefully, don’t you think? Just imagine the power to shape not only the nation, but also the life of every citizen in it! If that seems a little overblown, remember the election that kicked off this new century: a narrowly won Al Gore presidency stolen by a SCOTUS 5:4 vote. The Republican cause was aided and abetted by a high court that should never have interfered, a court so nervous about its decision that the judges even called their ruling in Bush’s favor a one-time exception and not a precedent. In the ensuing years, Bush appointments created an even more radical judiciary. In the past decade of corporate influence and income disparity, the high court of these United States has become a political arm of the GOP, and that’s about as personal as it gets.