"With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections,"
These are the words that came out of Obama's mouth as he stood before the entire population of Congress as well as special guests, top military leaders, and news crews that broadcasted this unprecedented incident across the world. Although Obama may have been seen as the only one who criticized another branch of the Federal government and may have seen out of line, Justice Samuel Alito also took some unprecedented action of his own by mouthing the words "not true" and explicitly displaying his disapproval of Obama's criticism of the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
VP Joe Biden justified Obama's statement by stating that Obama "didn't question the integrity of the court. He questioned the judgment of it." Although this is what Biden reported to the press and said during his Thursday's ABC's "Good Morning America" show, this is definitely not how it came out of Obama's mouth in the eyes and ears of reporters and critics watching the State of the Union Address. Although it is good for each branch of the Federal government to be checking on each other, this seems to be overstepping the executive boundary since the Judiciary is already seen as having the least power when it comes to separation of powers between the 3 branches. It is good that the President is expressing his opinion (and possibly even his personal views on the economy in relation to legality), was this really the time to criticize the Judicial branch? or to address the top concerns of the nation such as jobs, foreign affairs and... jobs?
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Yeech, can't sleep, but I'm tired. So I'm here. Alas.
Apparently this Alito moment is all people can talk about today. What fools. Obama might not have characterized the ruling correctly, but I do think the majority opinion was a judicial abomination and that they won't have good answer to the complication of multinational corporations having indirect influence on US elections, and it was right for the President to criticize the Court. How does this threaten separation of powers? He isn't telling people to ignore the ruling, but to disrespect the judgment contained therein. And it serves a larger political goal of moving judicial confirmation fights off the absurd presumption that the primary consideration for SC Justices is their brainpower. Obama voted against Roberts and Alito based on a lack of trust that they weren't just clever judicial activists with a lack of perspective.
At the same time, I really don't care that the camera's caught Alito disagreeing. People comparing this to "you lie!" have lost their minds. That the talking heads choose this to yap about pretty much proves my thesis about the media being mostly worthless hacks who disrespect their audience in search of short-term ratings gains.
Come to think of it, that's a problem with politicians, too. They don't trust that they can actually persuade anyone of anything on the merits, so they resort to slogans, half-truths, or whatever else will get them past the next election. Unsurprisingly, the public is disgusted with the Congress as a whole. But the public is impatient and materialistic, wanting a return to 1998. Sorry folks. Hegemony isn't a national right, and if we can't learn to sacrifice more to the common good, our long term problems will continue to fester.
Until your generation cleans up the mess. Thanks in advance!!
Post a Comment