Nominating someone from the mainstream sounds like a resonable request. But would the Republicans agree to sign a pledge to do the same thing when their turn to nominate comes up?
We need both liberals and conservatives on the bench to ensure that the system of checks and balances keeps of working.
Whether one is liberal we all must recognognize that if either party were to gain complete and uncontestable dominance of all the branches with the minority party having no strength to oppose whatsoever, then liberty as we know it would cease to exist. The conservatives seem to think that every darn thing the Dems do is Destroying the country.
The most damaging thing the Democrats have done in the past decade was to actually support the Republican administrations bid to go to war with Iraq. If the Dems had been as insolant then as the Republicans are now, we wouldn't be bogged down in the Iraq Quagmire. Say what you may about the the threats we faced at the time, there could have been a better way than invading and occupying Iraq.
There is a reason why we have a system of checks and balances and that is because the nations founder understood that if all the power were to be invested into one single power group,then the individual liberties of those who did not belong to that group would be forever lost, only to be regained through violent revolution or overthrow of the government.
While the holders of power shift back and forth every few years may create some animosity and anger and drive the opposing side further apart, it prevents one party from holding too much power for too long. So the laws and the way we run government shifts in one direction as one party holds power, Eventually the opposing party holds power and changes things towards their way of thinking. But the swinging pendulum of American politics has prevented either party from ever pushing things irreversably one way or the other.
The checks and balance are there to prevent the extremes. Because the extremeists on either side have never been able to have full control of the government, they are frustrated and make alot of noise. But basically, the extremes represent a very small portion of the political spectrum. Nothing can get done because the parties have become hostage to the extreme minority. But were we to embrace the ideals of mainstream middle of the road political views, then each party, instead of pandering to the extremes, they would be pandering to the middle of the road and as a result they will be able to make compromises and pass substantive legislation that actually get things done
As things stand the Repubs are afraid to make compromises and lose the support of right wing extremist and Dems are afraid of losing the support of the far left. Contrary to the untruthfull and totally baised reports that claim that America is generally conservative, the reality is that Americans are generally moderate and understand the concept of compromise and checks and balances. Americans appreciate the freedoms we have and our greatest fear is losing them. The fastest way to lose them is to grant one party to much power.
We allow the President to nominate Supreme Court Justices so that there is a mix of politcal phiosophies represented in the High Court. We wouldn't want it any other way.
I would be wonderful if we could fill the courts with Judges who are completely without political bias, but then we would have a court filled with people with no brains.
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