By the end of his first term as president, John McCain will almost certainly have had a chance to nominate one or two Supreme Court Justices. Almost certainly, McCain’s nominees will be extreme conservatives, replacing aging moderates. It will be an unrestrained hard-right court then, and for many years to come.
Not everyone named to the federal bench by recent Republican presidents has been a right-wing ideologue, but the ones who aren’t are called “mistakes.” The modern Republican Party likes judges who protect corporate power not only from government, but from individual citizens, as well. They want a Supreme Court who rules that the president has no immunity from civil lawsuits when the president is Bill Clinton, and rules that the American people have no right to know how federal energy policy is made when the president is George W. Bush.
Hillary Clinton’s “kitchen sink” campaign against Barack Obama gave her pyrrhic victories in Texas and Ohio, and, I fear, gave the November election to the Republicans — something that seemed almost impossible a few months ago. She smeared Obama and tainted herself. Her “no we can’t” message to young voters energized and mobilized for real change this year is likely to sour another generation of citizens on the idea that political involvement can make a difference — and that gives us another generation of government of the people, by the corporations, for the corporations.
If this country is to be restored, this is the time. By 2012, I fear, we will find we come too late.
Spink Nogales | 05-Mar-08 at 6:02 pm | Permalink
Your fears about the disposition of young voters seems to rely on the assumption that all the young voters are immature and selfish and if they don’t get their way that they will hold their collective breath until they turn blue or until we relent and give them what they want.
We are not voting for the new lead singer of our favorite music group. We are voting for an executive who can manage a stumbling economy, who can end the years of war with more caution than they were begun, who can restore the chance to fulfill the American Dream to the working class, and who can provide a Healthcare Program for all Americans so that a simple broken arm does not bankrupt a working family.
The men who fought and the women who served during WWII were younger than the voters you are afraid may sour if they don’t get their way. Maybe it’s time to take off the training wheels and grow-up and stand-up for what you believe. This is the time. One of many times. Many times as an adult that you will be challenged to fight for what you believe. And you might not always win, but at the very least you were part of the contest, and you may learn something for the next fight, and dare we ever give up on hope, you may win the next fight. That is what we call progress.
Or else we could pass a new law that says the vote of people under 25 years of age shall count twice that of all other voters.