A huge wave of relief overcame me on Saturday when Vice President Mike Pence read the Senate’s final vote count and pronounced Judge Brett Kavanaugh as the newest justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh was roundly considered a qualified candidate for the nation’s highest court since President Trump nominated him July 9. Had he been nominated in a different era, he would have been confirmed by a wide margin, akin to Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter or Ruth Bader Ginsburg — all of whom received at least 90 votes for confirmation.
But, alas, we live in different times now.
The Supreme Court is viewed as an extension of the legislative branch in modern times. Some justices no longer interpret the Constitution as it was written, but instead attempt to “make laws from the bench.”
Political ideology and public opinion should not sway a Supreme Court. It’s not the Judicial Branch’s job to seek popular thought or consider what is vogue in society. Justices are put onto the high court to hear facts of a case and judge them based on Constitutional law.
America’s division has shaken the foundation of our government
Imagine America as a massive tree.
Below the surface are the roots — the common beliefs and fundamental principles upon which this nation was planted.
The trunk of the tree is like the early period of America. Our founders had differences, of course. But the birth of a new nation, strong and resolute, united us all.
As time passed by — or, as this nation tree continued to sprout up — branches of division split us apart. But the trunk still kept us connected. We believed in a majority of the basic fundamental principles upon which the country was founded. But our separations spawned a Civil War.
The Reconstruction Era following the Civil War was like a landscaper chopping off the dead branches and keeping our nation tree strong.
However, as the calendar years flipped, our tree limbs continued to grow and separate. And now, it seems our branches of beliefs are so wide and spread out that the trunk is going to split down the middle, topple over and uproot our great nation.
We’ve become a divided society based upon pure ideology. There is one branch of our nation tree that is so radical, and so fundamentally opposed to the roots of the tree it’s clinging to, that there is only two courses of action that could take place from this point in history.
We could cut off that branch and maintain the health of our nation. Or, we do nothing. We allow the weight and separation of the branch to split our tree in two parts. Or, to uproot the tree entirely.
(Don’t get my metaphor wrong — I’m not saying we should eliminate an entire subsection of citizens in this country. But the radical Left needs to be educated on American principles and nursed back to health for our nation to continue to thrive).
The Supreme Court is a battle over political ideology
Because our nation is so ideologically divided, the Judiciary is no longer seen as a branch of government that upholds our nation’s laws. It’s viewed as the third chamber of the Legislative Branch.
That which isn’t successfully passed in our bicameral legislature is brought before the Supreme Court. And if there are enough justices with partisan impulses, the court will suddenly make a new law — Constitution be damned.
If the Supreme Court continues to operate this way, can you see how Americans are battling for partisan control of the high court? Rather than serving as a check and balance on the President and Congress, the Court will assume the role of political henchmen.
Kavanaugh caught in the wrong place at the wrong time
With this sort of judicial ideological mindset rampant throughout the nation, poor Judge Kavanaugh found himself standing on a remote island in the middle of a Category 5 hurricane.
What should have been a seamless confirmation process became an embarrassing partisan spectacle.
The Democratic Party, sensing a 5-4 conservative tilt to the Supreme Court — thus ending their reliance on judicial lawmaking — got desperate.
First they panicked. Then they strategized. Then they attacked.
Kavanaugh just a symbol in Democrats’ assault
First, the Democrats strategically publicized an allegation of a supposed decades-old sexual assault against Kavanaugh the week before the Senate was due to vote to confirm him.
Senator Dianne Feinstein reportedly had received a letter detailing the assault allegation from Christine Blasey Ford several weeks before it became public knowledge. But the Democrats kept this information hidden until the last possible moment to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Had the Democrats sincerely cared about Ford’s allegation, they would have brought it up much sooner in order to fully investigate Kavanaugh.
How any sane, rational-thinking adult could think that the timing of the release of the letter was anything other than political posturing by the Democrats is beyond me.
Second, sensing that they found a way to possibly sink Trump’s nominee, two other women — both with sketchy and flimsy accusation accounts — came forward to say they, too, were victims of unwanted sexual advances from Kavanaugh.
The Democrats were unable to find corroborating evidence nearly a month after Ford’s public declaration for any of the three accusations.
Anybody nominated by Trump would have experienced similar backlash. The Democrats just as easily would have sullied someone else’s reputation and good name.
It’s always been about Trump and abortion
No matter what the Democrats said publicly, the confirmation fight was never about Judge Kavanaugh or his character and temperament. Those were just excuses to gain public appeal and to sow enough seeds of doubt to sway Senate moderates.
The goal of the Democrats always was to kick the can down the road — the can being Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote. They hoped to kick the can past the midterm elections in November in order to secure the Senate majority. Then they could refuse to confirm any Trump nominees for his remaining two years in office.
The Left loathes Trump. There’s no hiding that fact. They’ve been looking for something to pin on Trump in order to boot him from office for two years now. Remember Russian collusion? How about his mental sanity — or “fitness” — to serve? Or even the vain criticism about him not appearing “presidential?” The goal since before he even took the oath of office was to get him out.
The fact that he has appointed so many federal judges as well as having the opportunity to nominate two Supreme Court justices has stuck in their craw something fierce.
And because Leftists don’t like Trump’s ideology, and because the Left wants to use the Supreme Court as an additional Legislative Branch, the idea of a 5-4 conservative majority overturning their right to abortion clearly was top of mind during the Kavanaugh smear campaign.
The ideological battle rages on, though the Constitution currently stands strong
As I mentioned in my open, I felt relief when Kavanaugh’s confirmation was complete. As a constitutionalist and a conservative, I believe in the roots of our nation.
I believe in three separate powers creating a system of checks and balances.
It is my contention that the Supreme Court is to interpret and uphold the laws, not cede to public opinion. The Legislative Branch is responsible for drawing up Amendments if the public cries out for it.
The Supreme Court now has enough justices that understand these separation of powers. This alone brings me great comfort. The high court will uphold our Constitution for a generation or more to come.
Unfortunately, the war isn’t over. The Left continues to scheme as we speak with how to upset that balance of power on the Supreme Court. They won’t give up their radical, (and in some ways) anti-American ideology without a fight.
It’s up to the good patriots of this country to keep a check and balance on them.
