LOS ANGELES, July 2, 2012 — The political earthquake from the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare is still producing aftershocks.
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberals to uphold the incorrectly named Affordable Care Act by a 5-4 margin. While the law was struck down as unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause, it was upheld as a tax.
Unconfirmed reports had Roberts preparing to side with his fellow conservatives only to switch his vote at the last moment. The reasoning was that Roberts wanted to preserve the “legitimacy” of the Supreme Court.
The idea behind this legitimacy argument emanates from the Bush vs Gore ruling in 2000, a ruling that the left has never gotten over. There were then, as there are now, five conservatives on the court and four liberals. They ruled in favor of George W. Bush along party lines. Therefore, the decision was partisan and somehow lacked legitimacy.
President Obama, who has a habit of demonizing anybody who disagrees with him, warned the court that overturning his signature achievement would be “unprecedented.” This was untrue, and tantamount to bullying. The left was prepared to see the law struck down by the conservatives. They were ready to mobilize against the “right-wing Supreme Court.” The only thing unprecedented would be the level of community organizing necessary to tear down a venerated institution.
Justice Roberts wanted the Supreme Court to be above politics. He switched his vote, and inoculated the court against charges of bias. He protected the “integrity” of the court.
This legitimacy argument sounds good except for one small problem.
It is complete nonsense.
It was not “the people” who questioned the Supreme Court after Al Gore failed to steal the White House. It was liberals. The people were not threatening to lead a smear campaign to tarnish the image of the court. Liberals were.
Conservatives are all about the rule of law. Liberals are about fairness. Anything they perceive as unfair in their minds justifies the politics of personal destruction. This is how asking a black attorney general to cooperate with a legitimate congressional investigation could be interpreted as racist.
This is how questioning an upper middle class white liberal female activist about paying for her own contraception could be construed as a war on women. This is how disagreeing with an American liberal leader who happens to be biracial can be portrayed as bigotry.
This is how striking down an unconstitutional law enacted by a former college professor with no paper trail of academic scholarship could be seen as unprecedented and illegitimate judicial activism.
There was another way the Supreme Court could have had a bipartisan and legitimate ruling. One of the four liberals could have crossed over. A 6-3 ruling against the ACA’s individual mandate, with five conservatives and one liberal standing against it, would have inoculated the Supreme Court as well.
How many times has the Supreme Court offered that combination with Ruth Bader Ginsburg alone joining the five conservatives? Never. Not one single time.
Liberals never have their legitimacy questioned. Liberals are not required to possess actual abilities as long as they look a certain way. This is how liberals choose presidents and judicial nominees.
Conservatives who move leftward are said to have “grown” or “evolved” in the job while liberals who move rightward are seen as traitorous. See Senators Jim Jeffords and Joseph Lieberman among many other examples.
Conservatives are selected to the high court based on qualifications, while liberals are selected based on electoral politics and ethnic constituencies. Elana Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor are intellectual lightweights who were selected simply for being two parts female and Jewish, and one part wise Latina. Sotomayor herself admitted she was “mediocre.”
Antonin Scalia continued the long tradition of conservative appointments based on strict constructionism and interpreting the law.
The legitimacy of the court was under attack by liberals who attack any institution with conservative leanings as illegitimate.
In their world, CNN is real news and Fox News is illegitimate.
In their world, PBS and NPR are real news while conservative talk radio is illegitimate.
In their world, the New York Times is the voice of the almighty while the New York Post is illegitimate.
In their world, the Florida Supreme Court ruling 4-3 in favor of Al Gore are legitimate while the 5-4 reversal by the High Court is illegitimate.
In their world, 5-4 decisions legalizing abortion and Obamacare are settled law of the land while 5-4 decisions the other way are illegitimate.
The way for the Supreme Court to keep their legitimacy is the same way that any person or entity remains legitimate.
People should do their jobs and block out the chatter around them. Professional responsibilities should trump threats from radicals.
Liberals will say that “both sides do it,” but this would only be true if the liberal media played their role honestly. In 2012, liberals bullied a conservative court into rejecting a legitimate counter-argument over a questionable law out of fear of being labeled as illegitimate.
Now that New York Times liberal throat-slitter Thomas Friedman has praised John Roberts, the emboldened left can find another entity to intimidate. After all, anyone disagreeing with liberals is not legitimate.
Meanwhile, the Constitution gets turned on its head by liberals who never cared for it to begin with.
Brooklyn born, Long Island raised, and now living in Los Angeles, Eric Golub is a politically conservative columnist, blogger, author, public speaker, satirist and comedian.
Eric is the author of the book trilogy “Ideological Bigotry, “Ideological Violence,” and “Ideological Idiocy.” Eric is 100% alcohol, tobacco, drug, and liberalism free. After years of dating liberals, he has finally seen the light and now only dates Republican Jewish women. His family is pleased over this. Republican, Jewish women, you may contact Eric above.
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Eric Golub is an independent writer for the Communities. Read more from Eric at his TYGRRRR EXPRESS blog.
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