On January 27, 1838, 28-year old Abraham Linoln delivered his first important political speech. Called the :Lydeum Speech” because it was delivered to a meeting of the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. Hi future law partner William Herndon later staid that “The speech was brought out by the burning in St. Louis a few weeks before, by a mob, of a negro. Lincoln took this incident as a sort of text for his remarks ... The address was published in the Sangamon Journal and created for the young orator a reputation which soon extended beyond the limits of the locality in which he lived."
One is that if some left-wing morons hadn't voted for Ralph Nader in New Hampshire, Al Gore would have had 270 electoral votes and Florida wouldn't have mattered. If Gore is president, do we get Alito? Of course not.
Another is that Alito was, of course, a Bush appointee. Often justices seem much more liberal or conservative than when they came on the court or than the president who appointed them, but it's truer that the issues themselves change. FDR wanted justices who would uphold the New Deal. He got them. But when it came time to deal with threats to civil liberties, they divided.
But Alito is not different from the administrations from which he emerged. As a Reaganite, he was tied to the same ideology. Likewise, lest we forget, beyond Iraq and screwing up 9/11, the Bush administration believed in "signing statements" and a "unitary executive." Alito is just another republican.
Finally, I always use lower-case because Lincoln was a Republican. There's a difference. It would be more accurate to call today's republicans Copperheads or Confederates.
Agreed. Tom. Thanks for the excerpts from Lincoln, I hadn't read those before.
Along with the fact that The Supreme Court Justices are not immune, is another fact; nowhere in Article 3 does it say, or even suggest, that Supreme Court Justices must be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. That's just the way we've always done it, does not imply we must continue. I just re-read Article 3 to make sure I'm correct, I am. Frankly, I think it's a shitty way to select what should be the most important legal experts in the land. Better we find legal experts who know the Constitution at least as well as I do. Have had a solid and respected career in the law. Are willing to work for $278,000 (or whatever the salary is at the time) per year plus benefits and expenses. We also need a universal code of ethics that applies to all public servants - and yes, in a democratic, representative, republic like ours, even the president is a public servant (something that slipped the attention of Nixon, Reagan, and Trump).
This is why I participate in phone banks (when I can stomach it -- it's something I actually detest doing) and write post cards when I can't. It doesn't feel like anywhere near enough, but it's what I can do.
Professor Timothy Snyder suggested in one of his blog posts, I may have found it here, that we all have to do something - every one of us. I'm too old and decrepit to march in protest any more, and my experiences with phone banking, though with some rewards, was tedious. So I have taken up Prof Snyder's suggestion of writing letters to the editor. I try not to be too preachy and start them with something historical so the morons I want to read it don't skip it after one line. And it's fun.
I remember, sometime in the Reagan years, somebody presenting himself as affiliated with the Federalist Society saying that the word "democracy" doesn't appear in the Constitution, so the founders didn't create a democracy, simply a republic. I'm pretty sure I heard that idea more than once, but even if I only heard it twice, it had an outsized effect on me because I thought it was a dangerous proposition, not the least for its bald-faced disingenuousness. If the assembly instructions for a Ford F150 don't contain the phrase "pickup truck," does that mean a Ford F-150 isn't a pickup truck? The founders created a set of assembly instructions for a democratic republic. Take democracy out of the picture and you have something outside the boundaries of the founders' constitutional vision. The comments from Alito, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were an amplification of that disingenuous democracy-erasing Federalist Society proposition I first heard in the 80s. And they would have you believe that only their opinions matter. Time to add some new seats to the bench. Make some noise with your people in Congress.
Reading Lincoln’s words and then comparing his oratory with TFG’s, one is struck by just how far the intellectual level in our political discourse has fallen. Lincoln uses lofty, serious language, while trump is about at a level of a second grader’s vocabulary and diction at best (my apologies to all second graders). Lincoln was self taught, living a hardscrabble life on the frontier while trump supposedly had access to fine schools and universities while living a life of luxury and look how each turned out. What a complete comedown of the GOP, from the party of Lincoln to the tribalism of trump when TFG is the best they have to offer…and 40% of the electorate support that offering.
Will our votes even matter by November? The cretins are busy with cheating, passing laws to make votes irrelevant, placing the true believers in positions of election “integrity,” and every dirty trick that has ever been conceived by the “wannabes.” In Texas, the takeover is practically a done deal. Lawsuits will abound. The SC will decide…
Lincoln puts it like this: “-let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty.” The 6 Supremes may not worry about losing THEIR liberty, but Trump or any Republican president will promote more of the global warming catastrophe which their descendants will have to face.
Brilliant. To destroy her enemies and preserve our Constitution is exactly what must be done in every way necessary to end these treasonous bastards where they stand.
For months before October 7th Israelis were in the streets protesting Netanyahu's plan to hobble Israel's Supreme Court and hand over more power to him and his ultra conservative cohorts. Here the SCOTUS maga fanboy club seems delighted to cede their role without a whimper and step aside for the formation of Trump's Revenge Ranger Units. They are indeed the Feckless Five.
Kurtz really hit the nail on the head. One had a visceral reaction to the hypos and/or the responses. It may not have been decorous but at several points I would have thought that an appropriate interjection would have been,”WTF?” And I’m bothered that no justice said that.
"If what happened today is allowed to stand, it will be very easy for historians such as I to date the Fall of the American Republic with accuracy: April 25, 2024.” Truth.
A couple of things.
One is that if some left-wing morons hadn't voted for Ralph Nader in New Hampshire, Al Gore would have had 270 electoral votes and Florida wouldn't have mattered. If Gore is president, do we get Alito? Of course not.
Another is that Alito was, of course, a Bush appointee. Often justices seem much more liberal or conservative than when they came on the court or than the president who appointed them, but it's truer that the issues themselves change. FDR wanted justices who would uphold the New Deal. He got them. But when it came time to deal with threats to civil liberties, they divided.
But Alito is not different from the administrations from which he emerged. As a Reaganite, he was tied to the same ideology. Likewise, lest we forget, beyond Iraq and screwing up 9/11, the Bush administration believed in "signing statements" and a "unitary executive." Alito is just another republican.
Finally, I always use lower-case because Lincoln was a Republican. There's a difference. It would be more accurate to call today's republicans Copperheads or Confederates.
Agreed. Tom. Thanks for the excerpts from Lincoln, I hadn't read those before.
Along with the fact that The Supreme Court Justices are not immune, is another fact; nowhere in Article 3 does it say, or even suggest, that Supreme Court Justices must be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. That's just the way we've always done it, does not imply we must continue. I just re-read Article 3 to make sure I'm correct, I am. Frankly, I think it's a shitty way to select what should be the most important legal experts in the land. Better we find legal experts who know the Constitution at least as well as I do. Have had a solid and respected career in the law. Are willing to work for $278,000 (or whatever the salary is at the time) per year plus benefits and expenses. We also need a universal code of ethics that applies to all public servants - and yes, in a democratic, representative, republic like ours, even the president is a public servant (something that slipped the attention of Nixon, Reagan, and Trump).
This is why I participate in phone banks (when I can stomach it -- it's something I actually detest doing) and write post cards when I can't. It doesn't feel like anywhere near enough, but it's what I can do.
Professor Timothy Snyder suggested in one of his blog posts, I may have found it here, that we all have to do something - every one of us. I'm too old and decrepit to march in protest any more, and my experiences with phone banking, though with some rewards, was tedious. So I have taken up Prof Snyder's suggestion of writing letters to the editor. I try not to be too preachy and start them with something historical so the morons I want to read it don't skip it after one line. And it's fun.
I remember, sometime in the Reagan years, somebody presenting himself as affiliated with the Federalist Society saying that the word "democracy" doesn't appear in the Constitution, so the founders didn't create a democracy, simply a republic. I'm pretty sure I heard that idea more than once, but even if I only heard it twice, it had an outsized effect on me because I thought it was a dangerous proposition, not the least for its bald-faced disingenuousness. If the assembly instructions for a Ford F150 don't contain the phrase "pickup truck," does that mean a Ford F-150 isn't a pickup truck? The founders created a set of assembly instructions for a democratic republic. Take democracy out of the picture and you have something outside the boundaries of the founders' constitutional vision. The comments from Alito, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were an amplification of that disingenuous democracy-erasing Federalist Society proposition I first heard in the 80s. And they would have you believe that only their opinions matter. Time to add some new seats to the bench. Make some noise with your people in Congress.
Reading Lincoln’s words and then comparing his oratory with TFG’s, one is struck by just how far the intellectual level in our political discourse has fallen. Lincoln uses lofty, serious language, while trump is about at a level of a second grader’s vocabulary and diction at best (my apologies to all second graders). Lincoln was self taught, living a hardscrabble life on the frontier while trump supposedly had access to fine schools and universities while living a life of luxury and look how each turned out. What a complete comedown of the GOP, from the party of Lincoln to the tribalism of trump when TFG is the best they have to offer…and 40% of the electorate support that offering.
Will our votes even matter by November? The cretins are busy with cheating, passing laws to make votes irrelevant, placing the true believers in positions of election “integrity,” and every dirty trick that has ever been conceived by the “wannabes.” In Texas, the takeover is practically a done deal. Lawsuits will abound. The SC will decide…
Lincoln puts it like this: “-let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty.” The 6 Supremes may not worry about losing THEIR liberty, but Trump or any Republican president will promote more of the global warming catastrophe which their descendants will have to face.
I have sent this one to my 70-plus email list, telling them that it's a must read for the obvious reasons. Thanks TC, for a superb column.
Ah Newt that compassionate creep who ask for divorce from a wife battling cancer! Newt is a newt!
From the eloquence of Lincoln the country is faced with an assault on the English language by the amoral orange creature!
Brilliant. To destroy her enemies and preserve our Constitution is exactly what must be done in every way necessary to end these treasonous bastards where they stand.
For months before October 7th Israelis were in the streets protesting Netanyahu's plan to hobble Israel's Supreme Court and hand over more power to him and his ultra conservative cohorts. Here the SCOTUS maga fanboy club seems delighted to cede their role without a whimper and step aside for the formation of Trump's Revenge Ranger Units. They are indeed the Feckless Five.
Bravo Tom! Bravo!
Kurtz really hit the nail on the head. One had a visceral reaction to the hypos and/or the responses. It may not have been decorous but at several points I would have thought that an appropriate interjection would have been,”WTF?” And I’m bothered that no justice said that.
"If what happened today is allowed to stand, it will be very easy for historians such as I to date the Fall of the American Republic with accuracy: April 25, 2024.” Truth.