Sotomayor and Republican framing of "Empathy"

[G Harris]

NPR Blog Entry - Does Sotomayor Have An Empathy Problem?

The article discusses how empathy may be used against the Judicial nominee, and against Democrats in general:

"A potentially greater source of vulnerability may be implied by a term that President Obama and others have been using lately. The term is empathy. In the parlance of their party, Democrats use this word to mean sensitivity to the plight of the poor, the disadvantaged and the downtrodden. Why shouldn't a judge, exercising the great power the Constitution has reserved for the judiciary, show compassion for the consequences?

"Republicans, for their part, regard empathy as a code word for emotion. They imply that emotion, in the context of jurisprudence, is tantamount to irrationality. Lately, Republicans have made frequent reference to "feelings," as in "the court should apply the law as written, irrespective of the feelings of the individual justices." Getting in touch with one's feelings might be good therapy, the conservatives say, but it's a lousy way to decide big cases."

...

It is also dangerous for Republicans to go too far in seeking a dehumanized rationality on the high court. The public wants sensible and evenhanded judges. But there is little evidence that the public wants automotons.

[EdwinRutsch]

We'll be discussing these topics about empathy in the
Empathy Healthcare Cafe.
As conservatives attack the value of empathy, I think it's important
that people that value empathy respond.

btw, our event planing meetings are actually being held in the offices
of the old Rockridge Institute!
I was there yesterday and the old Rockridge Institute name sign is
still on the building.

Empathy Healthcare Cafe - Event Planning
May 30, 2009, Saturday, 2-5 pm
@ Sustainability Center
2105 Martin Luther King Jr Way
( 2 blocks from downtown Berkeley BART..)
Berkeley, CA 94704
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpcsq8

Edwin
http://progressivespirit.com/Empathy/

On May 29, 2:35 am, G Harris <george4...@gmail.com> wrote:
> NPR Blog Entry - Does Sotomayor Have An Empathy

> Problem?<http://www.npr.org/watchingwashington/2009/05/sonia_sotomayors_empath...>

[Rikard]

George just wrote about this

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/empathy-sotomayor-and-dem_b_209406.html

and as usual he sees things the rest of us just dream about:-)
I started using the hashtag #georgelakoff in Twitter so we have a web
address where we can assemble articles by George

http://twitter.com/#search?q=georgelakoff

You can also subscribe to the query through rss

http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=georgelakoff


-Rikard

[Andrew Villeneuve]

Just retweeted it.

FYI, if any of you want to follow, we're at: http://twitter.com/nwprogressive

 

Andrew Villeneuve
NPI :: revolutionizing grassroots politics @ www.nwprogressive.org

---

From: Rikard <rik...@gmail.com>
To: "Rockridge Annex, temporary" <rockridge-an...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 8:26:20 AM
Subject: [annex] Re: Sotomayor and Republican framing of "Empathy"

[GregJL]

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/religionfromtheheart/2009/06/i_love_the_idea_that.html?hpid=talkbox1

Brought tears to my eyes. Some of the comments brought scowls.

On May 31, 2:28 pm, Andrew Villeneuve <commun...@nwprogressive.org>
wrote:

> Just retweeted it.
>
> FYI, if any of you want to follow, we're at:http://twitter.com/nwprogressive
>
>  Andrew Villeneuve
> NPI :: revolutionizing grassroots politics @www.nwprogressive.org
>
> ________________________________
> From: Rikard <rik...@gmail.com>
> To: "Rockridge Annex, temporary" <rockridge-an...@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 8:26:20 AM
> Subject: [annex] Re: Sotomayor and Republican framing of "Empathy"
>
> George just wrote about this
>

> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/empathy-sotomayor-and-dem...

[janine kovac]

great article, Greg.  Thanks for forwarding.  A year ago I don't think I would have ever imagined that we would actually be talking about empathy in these terms.

And ya, the comments. . . who are these yahoos?  :)