Posted by Wayne D. King
I'm working on a longer version of this for my next "Rattlesnake Ridge" column but here's one short observation from it.
Mitch McConnell’s protestations ring hollow in the fight over Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. After all, it was McConnell who lit this fire in the first place by denying an appointment to Merrick Garland. McConnell, who clearly is more concerned with his strategies for giving the Republican party an edge electorally than his legacy, has proclaimed that denying a seat on the United States Supreme Court to Garland and Obama has been his greatest accomplishment. He may as well say that he is proudest of having blown up the process for selecting Supreme Court Justices and imperiled the Republic in one fell swoop.
Given the poisonous air that has developed over the Kavanaugh nomination and the tactics used by both sides that have veered well outside of the soft guardrails of democracy it seems clear that only a reimagined process for the selection of Supreme Court Justices will allow us to find our way back to comity.
The first order of business after the next election should be a national discussion on the process for nominating and approving Justices to the high court. This ugly fight was only a symptom of a larger issue in our politics but it is emblematic of how far we have sunk in the greatest democracy on the planet. Unless we change direction we will soon be stripped of our title.
About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A former State Senator, and 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. Most recently CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge and proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing and his new blog and forthcoming podcast, “The Radical Centrist” is under construction at wayneking.org.
supreme court, kavanaugh, mcconnell, senator mcconnell, leader mcconnell, merrick garland
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