The Tea Party Movement is creating a true headache for the Republican party in regards to the nomination of Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court Justice by President Barack Obama.
Of course, it is well realized that a majority of Republicans in the Senate will vote against Kagan being confirmed. But many Republican senators are already admitting that Kagan is well qualified on paper. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona made it clear that they did not see a filibuster beginning, and that while they may have problems with Kagan in some way, they do not intend to let the Tea Party activists control the party’s strategy about the nominee.
But the Tea Party is just demonstrating how extremely radical right wing they are, as they have made up their mind to defeat Kagan because Obama selected him!
They want a Supreme Court that could just as well be made up of robots who do not use their mind, but simply promote a view of the Constitution that does not allow for anything other than the exact words of the document. Empathy, life experiences, and judicial activism are not to be part of the process. Any assertion of federal government authority is to be denied. Checks and balances and separation of powers are to be obeyed, without explaining how to interpret that. No consideration of foreign law is to be allowed under any circumstances in deliberation of cases.
This view of the Supreme Court would paralyze the Court’s ability to do its job! To promote in the 21st century the concept that the federal government has no authority other than what was perceived in the 18th century, and to assert states rights, when that was settled by the Civil War 150 years ago, is pure insanity! To assert also that no new rights to protect those who have been discriminated against historically should be allowed, and by implication, the thought that blacks, women, and other minorities should never have gained the equality which the Supreme Court has had a major role in promoting, makes one shake his head at the loony nature of this backwards, reactionary movement!
It is becoming very obvious that the Republican Party has an albatross around its neck: The Tea Party Movement! The leadership of the GOP need to make up their mind! Are they to be a mainstream party that represents the broad base of the American population, or are they to go down as an extreme reactionary, right wing group that has no possibility of having power and dealing with real problems in the 21st century? 🙁