Monday, June 29, 2015

Do Ultra Conservatives Love America?

Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, and their many supporters, are like husbands who praise womanhood while beating their wives.  They preach love of America, and fidelity to the Constitution, but lash out at the first hint of discord.

Bobby Jindal has called for eliminating the Supreme Court, while Ted Cruz, the voice of moderation, has merely called for retention elections.  Both seek to neuter the Constitution.

The Supreme Court Justices are intended to be different than elected politicians dependent on majorities within a district, state, or in the case of the President, the nation.  James Madison feared the "tyranny of the majority."  The most important role of the Supreme Court is to protect individual and minority rights from the occasional perils of majority rule.  That is why justices serve for life.

Protecting rights of gays fits squarely within the role of the court.  Of course the court is not infallible.  The greatest failures of the court are when it has refused to protect a persecuted minority, as with the interred Japanese Americans during WWII.

On the right, and on the left, we must live with the occasional teeth gnashing decision to uphold the purity and purpose of separation of powers.

Jindal's proposal is an obvious non-starter, but Cruz' proposal of retention elections for justices is also insidious.  Imagine Supreme Court Justices beholden to Big Pharma or Big Oil, or even Big Labor, for campaign contributions.

In a rage over recent decisions, Jindal and Cruz, are throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  Save the children.




No comments:

Post a Comment