The nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court vacancy has created consternation amongst both Leftists and Conservatives in the US. As she is not a judge and has not written a career-full of opinions, she has not provided what is known as a paper trail which might betray an ideology, or lack of one. Leftists fear that Bush may be pulling a fast one on them, since he presumably knows her opinions because of his long association with her. On top of that she has past connections with an evangelical Church in Texas, enough to make the blood of Leftist and Media people creep. Conservatives are suspicious because of the way past Republican nominations have turned out to be sell-outs. This time, many forthright well-qualified jurists, with a life-time’s evidence of adherence to the Constitution have been passed over. One, in particular, Janice Rogers Brown, a black woman and the daughter of a sharecropper, would have aroused great enthusiasm amongst Conservative and Christian grass roots activists. Democrats would have been placed in a difficult position opposing a black woman who has risen from such humble roots.
Initial Democrat reaction to Miers, orchestrated by the Media on TV and elsewhere in subsequent days, has been to cry “croneyism”. This is only a holding tactic by a Media Class caught off guard. The storm troops of the Media Class need time to ferret out more on Ms. Miers. It is possible that Bush is the dope they really think he is and has capitulated or been suckered, but no-one wants to wait to learn by experience, since her promotion would tip the balance on the Court. Any battles need to be fought before the Senate consents.
Jeanne Cummings, one of the multitude of Leftist reporters on the Wall St Journal, recently devoted a long piece aimed at setting out the Media’s list of litmus tests and creating the right climate for any Senate war. She wastes no time in enlisting some of the shadowy organisations which the Media Class breathes life into on such occasions. Thus we get Mr. Joe Solomonese being quoted. He is, she tells us, the “President of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group”. He thinks Miers may be sympathetic to homosexuals, based on her record in Dallas. Nancy Keenan, President of Naral Pro-Choice America is quoted on abortion (Abortion is the only issue on which this group favors choice) and expresses doubts on Miers. Cummings tells readers that Nan Aron of Alliance for Justice, a “civil rights group” has her attorneys “reaching out” to others who worked with Ms. Miers in Bar Associations. Finally, Cummings gives the last word to Ralph Neas, head of People for the American Way, “a liberal advocacy group”, who says his researchers are digging into Ms. Miers background. Squeezed in amongst these well-funded but quite unrepresentative Leftist groups, Cummings quotes only the head of the Family Research Council who worried about Miers’ past help to homosexual organisations.
Cummings article reinforces this website’s belief that the Media Class is currently preoccupied with the Homosexual agenda and Abortion Rights. These are litmus test issues because they focus the struggle of the Media Class to rid American society of traditional religious principles. If the Supreme Court can be packed with Leftists, then the traditional Christian Churches can be marginalised case by case and then ultimately their teachings and practices made illegal on the basis that they discriminate and are offensive to certain groups.
This has pretty much happened in the UK where no written constitution stands in the way of the Media Class agenda and all sorts of arbitrary laws now exist to enable the ruling class to pick and choose what offends. Thus many Britons now fear expressing views on a wide variety of things in case they are breaking some vague and obscure recently enacted law. Even flying the national flag can result in an intimidating police visit and having a picture of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet on the office desk can mean dismissal.
Whether or not Bush is being slyly clever, the Miers nomination is evidence of the Media’s power to orchestrate a storm of disapproval if he should dare to use his electoral victory to nominate a strict constitutionalist. Bush must have known that too many Republicans in the Senate would back down from a fight in the face of such a storm. The organisations like Mr Solmonese’s Human Rights Campaign are mere empty shells until the Media Class turns up their sound. Then they can be used to drown out all other views, invigorate the Leftist politicians and terrify timid Republicans.
We must all hope that Miers is a constitutionalist and gets appointed, as free speech in the US will be safe for a little longer. Unfortunately, free speech has now been outlawed in the UK. If any Britons don’t believe this, let them try to walk through any major city carrying the flag of St. George or put up posters in their windows calling for a halt to immigration.