In Whom Do You Trust?
It has now been five days since President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court of the United States. Much has been written and said about his choice both for and against. Many on the right who are not pleased with his selection have pointed to her lack of a record on the major conservative issues of our day. Those who have chosen to defend his selection are accused of using the argument of trust to defend the President’s decision.
Thomas at Red State has written a compelling argument against Ms. Miers in his article, Thirty Pieces of Silver. Thomas cites three reasons for his support of the Republican Party during the past thirty years. Two of the reasons he has supported the party have already been shattered, fiscal responsibility, and less government regulation on all of our lives. The final reason for his support of the party has been the promise that some day Roe would be overturned. He writes the following:
” Oh, not happily. But I can accept it because I thought I understood what I was getting in trade: The end of Roe. For that, I would trade a lot — I have traded a lot. I’ve made peace with the fact that Republican politicians like to get re-elected as much as Democrats do, which means that the budget goes Up Up Up! I’ve accepted the fact that no one has the spine to push even Bush’s half-hearted Social Security proposals. I’ve accepted the fact that this White House sees money as power to be applied, not something to value for its own, or for prudence’s sake, and the Congresscritters agree. I can accept that, as long as it means that the power is being used to achieve other ends.
I’ve eaten my own bile, and made peace with the fact that Arlen Specter is part of the caucus, for the same reason.
All pro-lifers have asked, lo these thirty years of blood, is for a chance to persuade. Before the Supreme Court invented a right to terminate unborn children, this issue, as with most contentious issues, was resolved through appeal and compromise and resignation on all sides. And that small, simple thing is what we have been promised all these years by the Republican Party, and it is a vital part of one of the legs of my support for this Party.
And yet, now, I see that leg bending, near the breaking point. And that’s a problem, because you see, there are three reasons why I’m a Republican. Two can suffice. One is not enough. And as it happens, you, collectively, are systematically destroying the thickest leg of all.”
His article is worth reading and expresses what many in the pro-life movement are thinking as a result of the Miers nomination.
Mark Levin expounds the strategy of President Bush’s nomination in his article McCain’s Blunder, where he writes this:
“Lest we forget, Majority Leader Bill Frist and the overwhelming majority of his Republican colleagues were poised to defeat the unprecedented and frequently used (or threatened) filibuster tactics that had been unleashed against President Bush by the Democrats to weaken his appointment power. The big media editorialized against it. George Will wrote at length (albeit unpersuasively) against it (see here and my response to him here). And Bill Kristol’s favorite presidential candidate in 2000, John McCain, the leader of the Gang of 14, was all over the media making clear he would torpedo such an effort. And that’s exactly what he did. This in no way excuses the president’s blunder in choosing Miers. But the ideological confrontation with the likes of Senator Charles Schumer and the Democrat left that many of us believe is essential, including Will and Kristol, was made much more difficult thanks to the likes of McCain and the unwillingness to change the rule before any Supreme Court vacancy arose. This president has been poorly served by his Republican “allies” in this regard. Bush is the first president who has had to deal with an assault of this kind on his constitutional authority. And unless and until the filibuster rule is changed, a liberal minority in the Senate will have the upper hand.”
Levin’s perspective and rationale are very much worth reading.
Hugh Hewitt stresses the political process unfolding before our eyes when he writes in Real people have paid real prices, the following:
“Part of my disappointment with the conservatives piling on the White House is the refusal to look at the entire political situation as it exists right now, 10 months into a 48 month term, 13 months before a crucial election, a week before the Iraq election and four years into a war that will go on for decades.
Bush and his team made a judgment on what was best for the cause of reforming the judiciary now, and he’s been stalwart in that cause throughout. Judging his judges on the Miers nomination is lousy analysis, especially as the case isn’t ripe. Talk to me in 2009 about the Bush judicial legacy. As of today, it looks extraordinarily good, but some conservatives seem intent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. “
Finally, Newt Gingrich writes, Conservatives can trust in Miers, where he makes a solid argument for trusting President Bush’s judgement for picking Harriet Miers. Read this:
” Mr. Bush governs with a very straightforward methodology: He says what he’s going to do. He does it. And then he does it again. This has been true with taxes, the war on terror and now with judges.
In both presidential campaigns, the president repeatedly promised to appoint justices like Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court.
With the president’s knowledge of Ms. Miers, his stated commitment to rebalancing the judiciary and his conservative record - not only in appointing judges but on big decisions in general - conservatives should feel comfortable in taking the president at his word that he has just now delivered another nominee in that tradition. “
Because we don’t have a lot of written documents about Harriet Miers, we have to trust in something, which is precisely what we stipulate here.
Most readers of this blog are “Christian Cultural Conservatives” who believe deeply in the preservation of life from the beginning in the mother’s womb until it’s natural ending.
The murder of babies both in the womb and outside the womb has been going on for millenia. The strategy for destruction of a race or nation thousands of years before Christ was for the conquering army to rip open the bellies of conquered pregnant mothers in the hopes of wiping out any descendents in order to prevent future retaliation. It is a known fact that archeologists have discovered thousands of infant skeletons in the bottom of the Tiber River in the ancient city of Rome indicating the practice of infanticide.
All of the great societies who practiced infanticide have ceased to exist. Rome lasted a thousand years, but finally fell because of political corruption and moral decay from within. The United States has been in existence for a little over 200 years, and is already seeing vast political corruption and moral decay.
The framers of the Constitution put together a document and process for the perpetuance of a Democratic Republic. They did so with a firm belief in God to oversee and guide their endeavor. The evidence of that trust can be found inscribed on our money, stamped into our coins, engraved into our buildings and monuments, and in our pledge of allegience.
The question for “Christian Cultural Conservatives” today is, “In Whom Do You Trust?” Do you trust in the God who “removes kings and raises up kings” (Dan 2:21 NKJV) and of whom the Apostle Paul says “the authorities that exist are appointed by God”, (Romans 13:1 NKJV) or is your trust in man and his ability.
Did not a friend of President Truman say, upon his signing of the document recognizing the State of Israel, “it was for this day that you were born”? Some get it, and others don’t. That is the reality we must face.
The United States will ultimately continue to exist or fall, based on her adherence to the Constitution and the principles of God’s law.
When we who have been advocates for overturning Roe v. Wade for thirty years and more have done all we can do to fulfill our responsibilities as men, we must put our trust in the process set forth by the framers, and put our trust in God.
October 27th, 2005 at 8:27 am
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