RBG

 Social media lit up on Friday with the news of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, throwing gasoline on an already blazing fire.   Ginsburg, the second woman on the Supreme Court, was a trailblazing icon of the liberal wing of the Supreme Court.  The films RBG and On the Basis of Sex paid tribute to her, and she fought a courageous battle against cancer for years.

While her view of the Constitution did not align with mine (I am more in the Scalia camp), I admired her sharp mind, her tenacity and her devotion to her work.  Photographs can be very telling about a person and I found two of her that I liked a lot.  One of them shows her side by side in opera wigs with the late Antonin Scalia (taken from a social media post entitled “Together Again”).  Their friendship was legendary and I hope someone pens a book about it and them.  Intellectual adversaries that were great friends and enjoyed each other very much.  The other photograph was taken when she was a young woman.   This photo seemed to capture her best and it is posted here.  Her eyes reveal a deeply intelligent and soulful individual and there is an unmistakable softness in her look as if she were gazing upon a newborn child.  I would guess that the people that know her best would say that this photo captures her best.  Her achievements, the quality of the life she lived cannot be denied.   I find it incredibly sad and distressing that the celebration of the life and work of this singularly accomplished woman will quickly be consumed by the conflagration over her successor that will run smack into an election that is almost certain to be close and contested.

What brought us to this point?   In my view, it is mostly the unvarnished and raw lust for power on the Left that has attempted to crush all boundaries, all institutional brakes and willingness to accommodate to get what it wants.  The Kavanaugh hearing gave us a good look at what the Left is willing to do.  They dragged up an obviously troubled woman to make uncorroborated decades old allegations (and several others that were shown to make false allegations) to smear this otherwise exemplary individual.  It occurred to me during these hearings that none of the people screaming and howling in the streets and pounding on the Supreme Court doors actually read any of Kavanaugh’s opinions and could not make an informed statement of why they opposed him.

Unbounded by any limits, the radical Left will undoubtedly ratchet things up again, and this time they have shown no inhibitions about using political violence and threats of violence to achieve their aims. 

The family of RBG (and initially reported by NPR) claims that on her deathbed she said, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”  I have serious doubts about the veracity of this claim.  First, NPR now has been captured by the radical Left (they recently publicized the book justifying looting).  Second, RBG was smart and precise in her language.  It would be out of character for her to suggest that a new president is “installed.”  Finally, she knew that Supreme Court vacancies are not passed down like property under a will.  This is most likely a concocted and false statement.  We would do well to recall that Richard Cordray tried to bequeath the chairmanship of the CFPB to his successor before Trump was required to go to court and deny him.  Attempting to create  permanently occupied positions that can be passed down  is now a standard practice of the radical Left.

The lack of boundaries and understanding of consequences directly led to our present state.  Harry Reid killed the filibuster and it apparently never occurred to him that roles may be reversed someday. Whatever your views of the filibuster, it helped to ensure that you take the opposing party’s views into account.   But now things can be done with pure power, brushing the opposition aside.  RBG herself had a role in this mess.  She could have retired under Obama and let Obama pick her successor.  If her real fervent wish was to not have Donald Trump name the successor to the seat vacated by her, it was actually within her power to make sure that happened.

I am bracing myself for the circus that is likely to ensue and perhaps even the violence that may follow.  Although I am more in the Scalia camp of judicial leanings, it saddens me greatly to see that the media spent such a short period of time honoring this singularly accomplished woman and immediately pivoted to the blood sport politics over the appointment of her successor.