Through The Looking Glass

In the din of hypocrisy and Republican senatorial obstruction surrounding the death of Scalia, I'd sorta forgotten how much of a corporate shill he was, how predictably he defended them against class action suits, among other things. Charlie didn't, though:

... If you think that the Republican intransigence on this issue is strictly a matter of being against anything the president supports, or that it's strictly a matter of loony constitutional theorizing, you're missing half the picture. They're stalling because the people who write them the checks need a reliable Supreme Court so that they can make more money and write more checks. Scalia was someone they could count on...

In my upcoming newspaper column, I link to a piece that's also mentioned in Pierce's (I like that we think alike), by a Harvard law professor who clerked for Scalia. It's worth a read.

... The enemy took many forms. Women’s rights. Racial justice. Economic equality. Environmental protection. The “homosexual agenda,” as he called it. Intellectuals and universities. The questioning of authority and privilege. Ambiguity. Foreignness. Social change. Climate research. The modern world, in all its beauty and complexity and fragility. 

Most of all, the enemy was to be found in judges who believe decency and compassion are central to their jobs, not weaknesses to be extinguished. Who refuse to dehumanize people and treat them as pawns in some Manichean struggle of good versus evil, us versus them. Who decline to make their intelligence and verbal gifts into instruments of cruelty and persecution and infinite scorn...

Two things are certain: President Obama will nominate someone, and whether or not Rs allow a hearing, that person will not be approved (probably not even brought to vote.) It's also predictable that, like his previous ones, any nominee put forth by Obama will be eminently qualifed.

When Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, among others, say the system is rigged, it's undeniable that they're right. It's an insider's game, where the real players are the moneyed people and corporations, the politicians (especially, but not exclusively, of the Republican variety) are their pawns, and voters are their playthings. As if there weren't plenty of proof already out there, Scalia's death makes it clearer than ever.

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