The Kavanaugh fight is a fight over false idols

To quote the prophet Allen Iverson: “I’m tired.”

Tired that the decision of who to name to the U.S. Supreme Court has been turned into a perpetual 11th hour of American politics.

It was never meant to be this way. One of Justice John Marshall’s most enduring legacies was his ardent search for unanimity when the court rendered a decision. Even though he was most certainly a political animal, this was not fundamentally a political game of gotcha to him. It was a genuine search for consensus that could be transmitted through bedrock Constitutional principles. It was a quest for careful and fair adherence to the rule of law that would bring the closest thing to justice we mere mortals could hope for.

And with that understanding in mind, the appointment of a new judge should in fact produce little more than a yawn from the public, if indeed we were a republic where the people rule, rather than of the banana variety. For what on earth should be raucous or sexy about men and women who are trained in painstaking depth how to soberly read laws without prejudice and settle disputes accordingly? Sounds kind of like reading the phone book for entertainment.

But not only do we not agree on what the law means in most specific circumstances these days, we also don’t have much respect remaining for the general notion of the rule of law, either. Chaos in the pursuit of raw power is now our jam. Which means that instead of quickly passing the black robe on to the next ready and able nerd-in-waiting, who is no more a threat to constitutional revolt than Mr. Rogers was a threat to suddenly hurl F-bombs in front of children on public television, we have turned Supreme Court justices into de facto demigods.

They are our saviors. On the Left, that means the judges are the architects of their progressive intelligent design. The judges create the world that the Left denies the Creator originally did.

Don't miss a minute of Steve Deace on CRTV! Sign up for your FREE 30-day trial today!

On the Right, that means the judges are the reason we keep voting Republican. Because why wouldn’t it make sense to vote for people in the hope they will then select other people we don't vote for and who aren't accountable to us and then say we're saving ourselves by entrusting our fate to those we have no leverage over? Seems a little bit like pulling the fire alarm after the house has burned down to me, but let's go with it nonetheless.

These justices and their courts are doing the opposite of saving us, though. They are tearing us apart as the largest, shiniest idols this nation currently adores. And just as the prettiest snakes are always the most venomous, so are the shiniest idols the spiritually darkest.

Many of the values and ideals that gave birth to American Exceptionalism are either gone or in the midst of serious erosion. With all the power we've given Republicans to do something about it, all they gave us was a temporary tax cut.

No wall. No border security. No effort to threaten subsidized fascists on college campuses with defunding their inquisitions. No defunding of baby killers. No balanced budgets. No repeal of Obamacare. Ah, yes, but they did appoint a bunch of judges. So I'm sure we can trust the same Republicans who punted on the power we gave them to appoint and confirm unelected and unaccountable judges.

I don't want Kavanaugh, or anyone else for that matter, regardless of his or her politics, to have his character falsely assassinated if that's what is happening here. And if that's what I thought this is really about, I'd be all in. However, this fight isn't really about what kind of moral character he has for the position.

It's a fight over a false idol.

For the Left, the courts are its college of cardinals. This is where leftist doctrine is enforced and positioning is protected. For the Right, this is the faux gospel that by appointing yet another squish worked over by the same progressive law schools the Left controls, we will undo a century of mortal wounds to our way of life.

I'm tired of this Pyrrhic argument. Have it without me from now on.