I want to shed a little "lyte" on norms today. The Senate Judiciary Committee is on day two of their questioning of Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor has a long, impressive resume, and has been on the bench for over 17 years. But it seems to me that the Republicans on the committee are ignoring all that, choosing to focus on three little words, "wise Latina woman".
Judge Sotomayor made the mistake of using this play on Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's observation that a wise old man and a wise old woman would probably reach the same decision on a court case. And the Republicans are going batsh*t crazy over it.
See, Sotomayor understands that judges are human beings. And the richer, and more varied your life experience is, the deeper and more nuanced your decision making capacity is. But Republicans hate nuance. And white old men are so used to being in power, and to having their experience be the norm, they just can't stand the idea that theirs' is not the only worldview.
First they had their world rocked by the nomination and election of an African American man as President of the United States. They are not going to sit idly by and let some latin chick onto the Supreme Court. Especially one who has the audacity to think that her experience is not only the equal of theirs, but actually better. They are outraged at the thought that Sotomayor is a living example of equality. Doesn't she understand that an underclass needs to be humble and deferential to the ruling class?
What we are witnessing is the dying gasps of a demographic that is moving from the majority to the minority. And they are not going to go quietly into that goodnight.
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