Bigotry and the Bench: Sowell is Brilliant

Thomas Sowell writes a must-read column about bigotry. . . and he sees it in the Senate maneuvering to keep judicial nominees from getting a vote.

Thomas Sowell

Maybe the non-stop denunciations of judicial nominees by Senate Democrats will seem relevant to some people but it is in fact wholly beside the point. Senators who don’t like any particular judicial nominee — or any nominee for any other federal appointment — have a right to vote against that nominee for any reason or for no reason. . .

. . .The real issue is whether those Senators have the right to deprive all other Senators of the right to vote on these nominees. . . The essence of bigotry is denying other people the same rights you have. For generations, it was racial bigotry which provoked filibusters to prevent the Senate from voting on bills to extend civil rights to blacks. But bigotry is bigotry, whether it is racial bigotry, religious bigotry or political bigotry.

The truth is, the Left lost the election in November. And they simply refuse to accept the loss. After all, “those people” couldn’t have won, could they?

Case in point: Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation, on This Week yesterday talking about those “right-wing Christians.” Voice dripping with scorn. That’s bigotry. And it’s not any prettier dressed up with intellectual pretension.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

And they can’t say that the question of the courts wasn’t part of the election: Judicial nominations were a part of the national discussion at the time.

So now, we’ve moved on to a raw power grab. The debate over the filibuster is hardball politics, plain and simple. Fueled by, as Sowell brilliantly recognizes, good old-fashioned bigotry.