Politics has a way of bringing out the worst in us. We’re seeing it at the national level, and we may soon see it at the local level as well.
The latest national controversy surrounds President Obama’s decision to not attend the funeral of the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. To listen to the Republican Caterwauling, you’d think they’d discovered that Obama himself arranged for Scalia’s assassination. I can’t blame Obama for his absence. Scalia is lionized by those who loathe Obama, and had he shown up at Scalia’s funeral he no doubt would have been criticized for saying or doing something allegedly disrespectful anyway. Why expose himself to their hostility any more than absolutely necessary? He privately paid his respects. Until Scalia himself lets us know that he’s really, really, really upset with Barry O., we should let this one slide. By the way, I’m not holding my breath waiting for any post-mortem visits from the good Justice. I think he was one of the greatest Supreme Court justices ever, but there are limits to even what he could do.
Republicans are on more solid ground in resisting Obama’s efforts to appoint Scalia’s successor, given the importance of the Supreme Court to making public policy through constitutional interpretation, and the near certainty that Obama will try to appoint someone whose judicial philosophy is at odds with the Republican Party.
But Republicans are going about advancing their case the wrong way, by claiming that Obama should not even try to make an appointment. As President, Obama has a perfect right to nominate whomever he wants, and Democrats have unearthed embarrassing quotes from Ronald Reagan and Mitch McConnell saying that the Senate should let the President nominate judges and justices and the Senate should vote on them.
Of course, the Republicans have no monopoly on poor arguments and embarrassing quotations racketing around in their closets, waiting to be unearthed. The Democrats argue that they’ve never prevented a vote on a Supreme Court nomination, but that’s not for lack of trying. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and his probable successor Senator Chuck Schumer have both advocated the blocking of Supreme Court nominations by Republican presidents. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, while senators, likewise tried to block votes on Supreme Court nominations.
Actually, everyone should stop trying to pose, posture, or offer inane reasons for particular courses of action, and simply do what he or she thinks is best for the country. Obama should exercise his undeniable constitutional right to nominate a Justice, and the Republicans should offer the nominee a hearing, and then use whatever valid arguments they can make to explain their opinion of the nominee and whatever parliamentary means are necessary to either confirm or defeat the nominee—that way the Republicans will appear to be more judicious and fair minded. And of course both Democrats and Republicans must accept the political consequences of their actions, whatever those might be.
At the local level, we’ll have contested city council races for two seats, but necessarily especially edifying one. All four of the candidates avidly supported the Mayor and his supporters in 2014. In fact, three of the candidates are actually incumbents. So what will they talk about?
Several candidates are questioning the perceived extravagance of the City Council now, despite the fact that the Mayor and his allies seemed to run on a platform of his fiscal conservatism last time. But actually, they didn’t. They criticized tax increases, but have never voted to cut taxes back to their original pre-2014 level of 48.5 cents. And they never criticized spending increases. Rather, they said we could have new spending with no new taxes. It may be that some of the candidates are beginning to think the new-spending-with-no-new-taxes approach was wrong after all. We’ll see. But the fact remains there are far more apparent agreements than disagreements between the candidates right now, and it’s frequently the case that the fewer the substantive disagreements, the greater the personal attacks. So what will emerge remains to be seen—possibly a more substantive debate on issue differences as they arise, but also possibly a campaign as enlightening as a mud wrestling match.
But mud wrestling can sometimes be fun to watch. So let the fun begin.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville and taught politics and government at Tarleton since 1987. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990 to the present). He was Mayor Pro Tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Stephenville Rotary Club, and does volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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