My wife travels for work, a lot. Yesterday was a bit of a reprieve where she was able to work from her home office. During this time, I had the TV tuned to the Kavanaugh hearings. It wasn’t two hours into it when she came up to me about what was going on. All she could make out from her office were people shouting in the background and trying to talk over each other in the foreground. According to her it was a pathetic display of the worst our political system has to offer. I had to agree with her. Between the Democrats’ constant interruptions and violations of protocol and the protestors screaming from the back of the room, it turned what should have been a pertinent process into a three-ring circus. The funniest thing about it was that Kavanaugh, for the most part, wasn’t even involved.
Three things came out of the first day of the hearing. The first was that the elections do in fact have consequences. Senator Lindsey Graham (R – S.C.) said it best in his statement at the end of the day, “[Democrats] had a chance, and you lost. If you want to pick judges, from your way of thinking then you better win an election.” This is so incredibly true. What is funny about this is that Democrats have Obama to thank for that tidbit of enlightenment. During a 2009 meeting with Republicans, he made the statement: “Elections have consequences. And at the end of the day, I won. So, I think on that one I trump you.” This is where the short-sightedness of our elected officials comes back to bite. Clearly the left is upset about the fact that the president upheld his promise to nominate a conservative, but that is what happens when you are in charge.
The second thing I learned is that the Democratic Party is willing to pull just about any stunt in order to cause chaos. I don’t mind that the Democrats are upset; I was equally upset when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed. However, I don’t remember the Republicans throwing the same temper tantrums during the hearings when it was the Democrats in power. I was once asked by a congressional hopeful what I thought about the filibuster process. His view was that we should abolish it because it allowed the Democrats to potentially stop the Republican majority from enacting its will. My response to him would be the same to the Democrats in this case. We have rules for a reason, and who it benefits all depends on the current political layout. I am tired of both sides trying to make a case to the American public about why we need to change the way the government operates in order to get things done. The rules are what they are and the Democrats should be a value-added part of that process. That does not mean that they need to simply lie down and take what the Republicans want, but they should be a meaningful part of the discussion. According to Politico, the Democrats considered throwing the ultimate temper tantrum and just not show up. In the end, however, the more senior leadership pushed the younger members to attend. I can only assume that this was out of fear of how bad the optics from such a stunt would be. Fox News even reported that the Democratic leadership arranged to have protestors disrupt the proceedings from the back of the room.
However, the attempts by the Democrats to stop a constitutionally prescribed process is shocking. Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono (D) stated, “If I thought that there was a way that we could stop the hearings from proceeding, I would participate in that. But the hearings are going to proceed. And therefore, we are there to do our job.” I hope others can read into the message that she is unwittingly sending. She admits that if there were a way to stop the process she would be willing to and is only doing her job because she cannot. Only in the government can someone get away with saying that they are only doing their job because they cannot feasibly sabotage their organization.
This leads me to the third thing that I learned. I learned that the liberal side of our country has become totally unhinged from any semblance of acceptance. I completely disagree with virtually everything that the left stands for. Yet I don’t hate or despise them. I would not impugn someone’s character or honor without cause. Yet this is not what the left does. Their view of the world is us or them. They deal with absolutes and do not allow for any sort of acceptance. That could be easily seen in the despicable behavior they have shown since Donald Trump took office.
What is shocking is that both Judges Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are replacing conservative justices. Granted, Kavanaugh is seemingly much more conservative than Kennedy, the man he is replacing. It is very possible that President Trump, especially if reelected for another term, will be nominating a replacement for another Supreme Court Justice. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is currently 85 years old and a very liberal member of the court. She will have to last to potentially 92 years old. Should a situation arise where President Trump will need to nominate a replacement judge for her, it would absolutely swing the court to a much more constructionist view of the constitution. I can simply not even begin to imagine the overall effect that this will have in our government system. If the Democrats are acting like spoiled children now, how bad could it get? I truly would not want to know.
