It won’t do any good to preserve norms in form only
by Tom Toles
As the Kavanaugh hearings proceed under whatever order Sen. Chuck Grassley can manufacture, we need to remember that norms of governing are not to be confused with procedural order or mere politeness.
Noisy visitors and frustrated Democrats unsettled the pageantry on Tuesday. You are free to condemn the hecklers if you want, but sometimes hecklers are onto something, and this is one of those times.
The current hearings are not occurring in a vacuum. Context is everything, and the context now is an ongoing GOP attempt to construct a court majority that is predetermined to rule in Republicans’ favor on a legislative agenda that is increasingly at odds with voters’ wishes. The context included the kidnapping and subsequent disappearing of the Merrick Garland nomination. This was not just a procedural outrage; it was also an affront to American voters.
So to see Grassley trying to enforce some semblance of procedure in these hearings is not a reinforcing of norms, but a mockery of them. Yes, hardball is part of politics, but so is a just outcome that voters can rally behind. The bedrock of a democracy, on which all the institutional procedures and norms are built, is this: consent of the governed. And this is what the GOP is turning its back on. Donald Trump is a minority-vote president. He has no mandate for ultra-partisan court appointments, but never mind. The agenda now is mere railroading.
Garland is gone, but not forgotten. Republicans owe the nation a compensating move that will bring healing rather than a larger wound. But a larger wound is what they are intent upon. For all his politeness, Brett Kavanaugh was named because he was seen as a partisan vote on the court. Don’t be surprised that everyone else sees him that way, too. And don’t be surprised when someone stands up in the back of the room to call it out. Steamrolling over objections to the haste, opacity and sheer hubris of this nomination, after the snail-walk of the Garland nomination to hospice and then the grave, is a far worse discrediting of the process than heckling is.
Can’t we all just get along? If one side is going to continue exploiting the mechanisms of democracy to undermine its purpose, then no, we can’t.
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OCU
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