THE MEANING OF 'MAINSTREAM'
Liberals Are Dumb Asses
By MARK GOLDBLATT
IN the just-ended fight over filibustering judicial nominees, the
Senate
gave us something new: defining extremism leftward. Judges whose views
Democrats would once have regarded as merely conservative are now seen
as
right-wing extremists - or, to use the phrase that keeps coming up in
the
current Senate debate, "out of the mainstream."
But what does the phrase mean? From Democrats' recent public
statements, it
seems to mean the following: Judges who would uphold a state's ban on
gay
marriage are out of the mainstream; judges who would rule that parents
should be notified before their underage daughter has an abortion are
out of
the mainstream; judges who would question the wisdom of affirmative
action
are out of the mainstream.
Yet each of these positions is well within the mainstream of popular
opinion - indeed, each arguably represents the view of a majority of
Americans.
What might an actual extremist look like? A judge ruled who not just to
uphold a state's ban gay marriage but to re-criminalize acts of sodomy,
perhaps. Or one who ruled not just to allow legislative restrictions of
abortion, but to ban abortions outright, by judicial fiat. If a judge
ruled
not just to disregard race in college admissions but to re-establish
separate-but-equal schools, that would be out of the mainstream.
None of President Bush's judicial nominees is an extremist - or even
close.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated by President Clinton for the Supreme
Court in
1993 and confirmed by the Senate 96-3, once proposed the abolition of
Mother's and Father's Day in favor of a unisex Parent's Day; she also
once
called for co-ed prisons and speculated that prostitution and polygamy
might
be rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Yet none of that put her
"out
of the mainstream" in the eyes of an overwhelming majority of
Republican
senators.
The Democrats who were filibustering President Bush's judicial nominees
were
seeking, in effect, to define extremism leftward. Coming from a
minority
party, this was pure hubris. Should it ever happen again, Republicans
must
not compromise. If the so-called "nuclear option" is required to
re-orient
Senate debate, and also to remind Democrats why they keep losing
elections,
so be it.
Tim
brian bennett
my good man, without bothering to name said troll nor apply any
brainpower to the fact that you are sending this to multiple news groups
-- exactly what in the fuck are you trying to accomplish?
b
--
citizen, patriot, stoner
Marijuana: it's nowhere near as scary as they want you to think.
truth: the Anti-drugwar http://www.briancbennett.com
Nothing will ever change if we don't stand up for ourselves:
http://cannabisconsumers.org
"Cops say legalize drugs" ask them why:
http://www.leap.cc
robin hood zorrro
dont list it,
I am 95% sure that is his home.