WELCOME TO THE ERA OF POLITICAL PAYBACK!

By Edwin Cooney

I hope you often wonder why Congress isn't generally working for you and me! I'm convinced I know the answer, but before I tell you, I will first make my case with a set of questions.

(1.) Why does the party which is out of executive power offer their version of the State of the Union? After all, the Constitution requires the president to give such an annual report. According to senate.gov, until 1966, following President Lyndon B. Johnson's moving the State of the Union address from afternoon to evening thus tripling the national audience through television, Senator Everett M. Dirksen and House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford took advantage of equal time rules for national radio and television to respond to LBJ thus politically institutionalizing the president's constitutionally required obligation. It was indeed an advantageous breakthrough for the national political circus! 

(2.) What were the political forces that prevented LBJ from successfully confirming Abe Fortas and, later, Homer Thornberry to the Supreme Court in 1968? Besides the fact that both men were political and social rogues, Southern Conservatives and GOP Conservatives were determined to blunt the “progressive" agenda and power of the Warren court.

(3.) Why were Judges G. Harrold Carswell and Clement Haynsworth, President Nixon's first two "strict constructionist” nominees to the Supreme Court, rejected by the U. S. Senate in 1969 and 1970? The answer is that Democratic Senate leaders were suspicious of President Nixon's political "southern strategy” when it came to both politics and jurisprudence.

(4.) Why did Congress reject President Nixon's “Family Assistance Plan” which included a strong healthcare program? The primary reason was because Senator Edward M. Kennedy considered healthcare his bailiwick, not Nixon's! Hence, Senators Birch Bayh, Mike Mansfield, and others were determined to keep healthcare a Democratic issue rather than a Republican one!    

(5.) Why, primarily, did the Democratic Senate block the confirmation of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987? There were two reasons for that. The first was Bork's opposition to Roe vs. Wade. More importantly, Robert Bork as acting Attorney General in 1973 had done Nixon's "dastardly dirty work" when he officially dismissed Archibald Cox and William Ruckelshaus during the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” of October 20th, 1973. (Note: Though I now shamefully bare this prejudice against Bork's Saturday night skullduggery, during the confirmation hearing I thoroughly enjoyed Bork's scholarly explanation as he steadily puffed on cigarettes throughout his testimony. He should have been confirmed because he was highly qualified and intellectually honest. Besides, he was legally within his right to dismiss Cox and Ruckelshaus not having been a part of the original agreement that appointed Cox as Watergate special prosecutor and Ruckelshaus as his assistant in May of 1973.)

(6.) What lay behind the Congress’s chronic opposition to President Bill Clinton's presidential incumbency? The answer is twofold. Bill Clinton was a draft evader. He was also a womanizer. Republicans insisted throughout his presidency that one of these tendencies was unpatriotic and the other was immoral. All Republicans were thus patriotically and morally superior to President Bill Clinton.

(7.) Why did the Conservative-oriented Supreme Court stop the vote counting in Florida in December of 2000? Since Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was planning to retire, a Democratic president may well have endangered the Conservative majority on the high court.

(8.) Why did the GOP Senate (which had considered itself the “guardian” of constitutional law and order since the days that FDR sought to pack the court) deny Merrick Garland even a hearing for confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2016? The answer is pure and simple politics. They did it because they had the votes and the will to do it. It certainly had nothing to do with patriotism or national security!

(9.) Why did the United States Senate twice declare President Donald J. Trump not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors? For the same reason that the 1999 session of the Senate declared Bill Clinton not guilty of the same: because they had the votes and the will! (Note: I'm convinced that President William Jefferson Clinton was guilty of obstruction of justice and Al Gore should have been the 43rd President of the United States of America!)

(10.) It's likely, unless the Democrats make a huge political issue of it during the coming campaign, that the GOP —  with majorities in both houses — will stop pursuing what occurred on January 6th, 2021, thus freeing Donald Trump of all responsibility and, above all, accountability for clearly conspiratorial sedition!

During this past week, we heard a Republican Senator admit that although Ketanji Jackson Brown is fully qualified to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, he won't vote for her — probably because QAnon won't support her either. NUTS!

Moral and political objectivity and judgment have, during recent decades,  been literally choked to death by both hands of all parties.  The fingers of these choking hands have been conservatism, liberalism, progressivism, isolationism, imperialism, materialism, greed, and ambition. The thumbs of these hands have been fear and prejudice. The palms of these hands have been hatred and self-centeredness.

Perfection is, of course, beyond human capacity. Still, we're at this sorry pass because we've become disciples rather than mere advocates of our rights. Even worse, it often appears that no one else's rights, feelings or even existence much matters to us!

Here's an irony for you! Robert Bork's most famous — or infamous — book is 

“Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline.” Personally, I'd substitute the word “liberalism” with the phrase “self-righteous-ism.”  

"Slouching towards Gomorrah: Modern Self-Righteous-ism and American Decline."

Robert Bork's identification of "liberalism" being the cause of American decline is way too narrow a charge. Unfortunately in 21st century America, too many of us have substituted love of political doctrine and even our favorite political party for love of country and love for one another!  

What say you?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY