Theo-Cons Gone Wild!

I fear the less said about this Anti-Judicial Activism Conference the better, but clearly this strain is not going away. For me the biggest worry it causes is not that judicial independence will be overthrown, but that we continue to have a politically-passionate faction who elects our leaders that can never be satisfied (because their policies can never be implemented).

Regardless, despite my at-all-costs pro-democracy views, and even my hopes that Republicans will see the injustice and negative-sum problems inherent in our Constitution, such narrow ideological goals are not what is going to get it done or anything I endorse. (Indeed, some have noted that this group only hopes to replace our current un-accountable ancient superlaws with an older set.

The best rebuttal to this conference of course being a sympathetic call to arms about the need to impeach Scalia.

In the Go game of politics, the Right is trying to use this to convince their base they are fighting for them (while no one else is paying attention), so they don’t have to make any other indulgent policies in the next 2 years, while the Left is trying to convince America that these people really are crazy and represent at most 30% of the country. I continue to think things look better for Democrats than the Republicans ever give them credit for (compare Bush’s re-election EV tally to other re-elections: Johnson 486, Nixon 520, Reagan 525, Clinton 379, W 286), but do not be tempted to think any political event like this is played brilliantly by only one side and not the other.