Why the Scalito nomination is good for America
Please pick your jaws up from the floor - I am entirely serious. Let me explain.
It's been almost a year to the day since the election of 2004, and it's very pleasing to look back on it. If you recall, we heard delusional rantings back then about a "permanent majority" for Bush-style repugism; that narrow "victory" - there are considerable doubts as to those vote counts, but what else is new? - was to lay the groundwork for a new era of rampant, unrestrained extremism. Politics, however, knows no permanence.
In the last year, we have seen two new memes established in the popular mind: one, that right-wing government entails cronyism and hence, incompetence; and two, that reactionary one-party government produces corruption and criminality.
The Alito nomination will establish the third item in the trifecta: extremism. For a very long time, the right wing has been able to present itself as what it used to be, a party dedicated to a conservative approach, moderate, the kind of thing that plays well in suburbia.
This fundamental misimpression is about to be shattered. Scalito wants abortion outlawed - a solid majority of Americans disagrees. Scalito has problems with the Family Emergency Medical Leave Act - the radical proposition that employees can take up to twelve weeks off to care for sick family members. He thinks guns belong in schools, and that women need to meekly tell their husbands about their medical decisions. For the last decade, the dark side has carefully wrapped its radicalism in warm and fuzzy language - say goodbye to all that.
The reactionaries are already in a very dicey situation politically, and the coming showdown comes at a time when they are weakened. A dogfight in the Senate is exactly what is required to show America that there is no such thing as a moderate republican. If there is a filibuster, and the Senate goes nuclear, every single (R) will be forever tainted with the stigma of theocratic, authoritarian extremism. Which is just as it should be.
It's been almost a year to the day since the election of 2004, and it's very pleasing to look back on it. If you recall, we heard delusional rantings back then about a "permanent majority" for Bush-style repugism; that narrow "victory" - there are considerable doubts as to those vote counts, but what else is new? - was to lay the groundwork for a new era of rampant, unrestrained extremism. Politics, however, knows no permanence.
In the last year, we have seen two new memes established in the popular mind: one, that right-wing government entails cronyism and hence, incompetence; and two, that reactionary one-party government produces corruption and criminality.
The Alito nomination will establish the third item in the trifecta: extremism. For a very long time, the right wing has been able to present itself as what it used to be, a party dedicated to a conservative approach, moderate, the kind of thing that plays well in suburbia.
This fundamental misimpression is about to be shattered. Scalito wants abortion outlawed - a solid majority of Americans disagrees. Scalito has problems with the Family Emergency Medical Leave Act - the radical proposition that employees can take up to twelve weeks off to care for sick family members. He thinks guns belong in schools, and that women need to meekly tell their husbands about their medical decisions. For the last decade, the dark side has carefully wrapped its radicalism in warm and fuzzy language - say goodbye to all that.
The reactionaries are already in a very dicey situation politically, and the coming showdown comes at a time when they are weakened. A dogfight in the Senate is exactly what is required to show America that there is no such thing as a moderate republican. If there is a filibuster, and the Senate goes nuclear, every single (R) will be forever tainted with the stigma of theocratic, authoritarian extremism. Which is just as it should be.
posted by Michael at 2:34 PM
<< Home