Conversation

David Roberts
@drvolts
If you read about the birth of the Federalist Society, there's a kind of theme in the background that's worth elevating. Cons' problem over the years is that they would nominate judges & then be "betrayed" as judges drifted left (or just moderate). Souter, Kennedy, Blackmun etc.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
Cons have lots of ways to explain this to themselves. Being exposed to libs corrupts the bodily fluids! Etc. But the most most sensible & obvious explanation is that decent people, once they survey the evidence & arguments, come out in a decent/compassionate/liberal place.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
Now, noticing that the smart, decent people they nominated kept coming to compassionate/moderate conclusions, they did NOT conclude, "gosh, maybe we should be more compassionate/moderate, since that's where good-faith study of the evidence seems to lead!"
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David Roberts
@drvolts
Instead, they decided they needed a cult-like organization where they could create hyper-ideological zealots, people so committed to reactionary conclusions that NO amount of exposure to evidence or simple humanity could ever change their minds: thus, Federalist Society.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
Thus we have the striking situation we get today: libs looking for judges can pull them from anywhere. But cons looking for judges can ONLY find them in this creepy billionaire-funded hothouse fringe cult full of ditto-brained mediocrities.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
It's really a great illustration that if you want someone truly, consistently reactionary, you need to find a particular dysfunctional personality type that can selectively ignore evidence, ignore nuance & context, ignore simple humanity & human need. You need a zealot.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
That's why the cons on SCOTUS are, in addition to being so horrible on the law, just kind of weird & creepy -- intellectually mediocre but hyper-prickly & vain. They were forged in the Federalist Society laboratory. That does not produce normal, healthy people.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
Replying to
@drvolts
The short version is: Blackmun was a conservative, leaned anti-abortion, intended originally to make a narrow ruling. But ... he *researched*. He read. He talked to women. He opened himself to the evidence & the evidence convinced him the right to abortion needed protecting.
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David Roberts
@drvolts
It is precisely that openness, that willingness to follow the evidence, that the Federalist Society was designed to crush.
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