Conceit of Government

Peggy Noonan has an excellent analysis of the elitism which apparently drips from Washington, emphasis added by Mongo...

"How exactly does it work? How does legitimate self-confidence become wildly inflated self-regard? How does self respect become unblinking conceit? How exactly does one's character become destabilized in Washington?

The Supreme Court this week and last issued many rulings, and though they were on different issues the decisions themselves had at least one thing in common: They seemed to reflect a lack of basic human modesty on the part of many of the justices.

Many are famously very old, and they have been together as a court for a very long time. One wonders if they have lost all understanding of how privileged they are to have lifetime sinecures of power and authority. Do they have any sense anymore of common human wisdom, of the normal human arrangements by which Americans live?

Maybe a lot of them aren't bothering to think. Maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg is no longer in the habit of listening to arguments but only of watching William Rehnquist, and if he nods up and down she knows to vote 'no,' and if he shakes his head she knows to vote 'yes.' That might explain some of the lack of seriousness in the decisions. Local government can bulldoze Grandma's house because it's in the way of a future strip mall that will add more to the tax base? The Ten Commandments can appear on public land but not in a courthouse, but Moses, who received the Ten Commandments can appear in the frieze of the House but he'll be sandblasted off the Supreme Court? Or do I have that the other way around? "

The court bothers me in another way. I'm not naive enough to believe that the Supreme Court will bring down decisions which will please everyone. It is pretty well understood that by the time a case is brought to the court, everyone is displeased and there must be a final arbiter of the matter. The Court is the final arbiter.

But, we should expect a decision based on United States law. Not on some changing social thought in "the World". Review recent decisions and you will see a blatant insertion of "world" thought in the decisions. The Nine don't work for the French, or the UN, or Amnesty International. They work for us. I suggested to my Congressman that funding to the court should be cut as a disciplinary method. Hit em where it hurts.

Oh, if you cut funding tomorrow, it won't hurt the 9 millionaires, but it sure could put a dent in their operations. Just a thought.