Dumb White Male

You have no doubt heard that President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee fancies herself to be a superior person because she is a Latina woman:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

When I first heard these horribly racist and sexist words, I thought the same thing you did: If a white man had made such a claim for himself over (say) Latina females, that would have been the end of his political career. This sort of talk should immediately disqualify anyone of any background from holding any sort of public office in America.

Not so with Sonia Sotomayor. Expect her to be approved by the Senate.

Part of this is because her opposition is weak-kneed. As NPR smugly points out, anyone who votes against Sotomayor’s seating may well lose ground with Hispanics and women.

(I would like to think that Hispanics and women are more thoughtful and less hysterical than that – that they are not so childishly partisan that they are willing to say, “She voted against a Hispanic, and that makes her my enemy!” or “He voted against a woman – that means he is sexist!” But I confess, I’m not so confident about that as I would like to be. I have been shocked and astonished at the vast number of Americans who are trivial-minded and media-driven. Nothing else can explain the current situation on Capitol Hill!)

In any case, although Ms. Sotomayor will certainly be another poison pill for the American body politic, I do not think that it is all that important to resist her appointment.

The reason is that Ms. Sotomayor’s nomination, like President Obama’s election, is a symptom rather than a cause. We might like to think that we can win a great victory by preventing her being seated on the bench, but even if we succeed, the President will only bring another nominee who will be even worse (if it is possible) than Ms. Sotomayor. And no power on earth will be able to stop the second nominee from donning black robes.

Agitating to prevent Ms. Sotomayor’s approval is something like trying to eradicate weeds by plucking all of the mature seed heads: Even if you are completely successful (and you won’t be), you still have not dealt with the real problem. Dandelions must be killed at the root.

My next article, tomorrow, will begin to detail how to deal with our nation’s current corrupted state from the roots up.

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