Has anyone codified a set of Laws of Political Dynamics? I have a suggestion for one law that must be included on such a list: the level of brilliance of a President Obama decision is directly proportional to the level of hysteria amongst the far right in reaction to it . . . the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to become an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court being the quintessential illustration thereof.
There are absolutely NO principled reasons on which to oppose her nomination, so the lies, distortions, and outright nastiness of the über-right have gone way beyond hysteria and into out-and-out incomprehensibility. Consider just a few of the smears and mud being flung: (1) She is from a historically underrepresented minority ethnic background; therefore, she is a racist. (2) Her remarkable achievements in rising from the poverty that is the South Bronx to attend an Ivy League university and Yale Law (with summa cum laude graduation and editorship of the Yale Law Review being only two of her accomplishments while doing so) mean she is not at all smart and therefore must be "an affirmative action" beneficiary. [I will not even get into the side issue, which is that even if that's true, it doesn't mean she's unqualified per se--it means only that her merits would have been totally ignored and undeveloped without a little institutional assistance; in other words, a recognition of the fact that the playing field is not in fact level for all of us.--Ed.] (3) Her ability and willingness to speak her mind and argue cogently for her point of view means she's a bully. (4) Her years of experience as a prosecutor, an attorney in private practice, and as a federal judge (both at the trial and the circuit court levels), the most any nominee has brought to the Supreme Court in over a century, mean she is totally unqualified.
To anyone out there who believes the tripe: want to buy a bridge? I can get one for you wholesale!
The far right of the GOP is so caught up in talking to itself to reaffirm its own prejudices that it's losing sight of reality. [You know, if this weren't so pathetic, it would be amusing. The GOP is so out-of-touch that it cannot even see how out-of-touch it is.--Ed.} The rest of the world is NOT going to come beating down its doors to join it. We've moved way beyond its limited ideas and ideology. If the GOP wants to stay a viable, credible, nationwide influence, the GOP must stop contemplating its collective navel and start bridging the gap between its rigid ideology and where most of us actually live.
That bridge is still for sale, guys. But a deal like this won't sit around forever. You have to act now!
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