Chief Justice Roberts Concerned About Supreme Court’s Integrity

And he should be concerned, considering the history of the institution in the past 200+ years.  There has been a recent resurgence of bench activism, with Bush v. Gore and Citizens United providing two highly memorable examples.

Chief Justice Roberts took something to heart that is critically important, IMO.  If the populace loses faith in the Court’s decisions, the populace will grow to resent those decisions and actively work to undermine the Court’s authority.  What would happen in Americans refused to acknowledge the Court’s legitimacy?  9 hollow shells whose actions mattered not a whit does not bode well for a functioning democracy.

I think Roberts tried to walk the Court back from the step or two with the Obamacare ruling.  The other right-wing extremists would have taken the Court even closer to the edge, if not a little bit over it.

Congress might want to learn a little bit of the same lesson for its own good.  Both parties seem primarily interested in getting elected and re-elected, not governing.  The Democrats have done a slightly better job of governing, but not much – and what kind of bar am I comparing them to?  Some of the most extreme bunch of folks to ever control any kind of power in US government.  Thus, my statement should not be taken as a ringing endorsement of the Democratic Party or its so-called “accomplishments”.

To the contrary, the Democratic establishment continues to try to play the Democratic base for fools with their fear-mongering of the Republican Teahadists.  I want to see real progress made on every critical issue of our time.  What I’ve come to realize is the Democratic establishment doesn’t want that any more than the Republican establishment does.  Doing actual work would distract us from the scary “others” out there that need to be constantly fought.  No, what I and millions of other Americans want are effective political movements – the kind which were squashed in the 1960s with all of the assassinations of the previous movements’ leaders and high-profile supporters.  We have seen what the lack of those movements has meant for America: stagnation on multiple different fronts.  Sure, I can buy lots of crazy cool crap, but is my life really significantly better than the average Americans’ life at the end of the 2nd third of the 20th century.  I don’t think so.

So Roberts took a small step back – good for him.  The question is: will it be enough?  How many more decisions have to be made; how many more elections have to be held until most Americans not only realize the establishment isn’t working for them, but are willing to actually do something about it?

Democratic Machine Wants The Occupy Movement

And that includes President Obama and his advisers, by the way.  Obama’s team is planning on challenging Mitt Romney as being too closely associated with those who every day exert more control over the people’s government.  Really?  That’s Rovian in nature: attack your opponent where you’re weakest.  Obama flooded his economic team with former Wall Streeters once he took office.  The people who have PhD’s on topics like the Great Depression (which we’re still flirting with)?  They left the White House because their voices were being kept from the President.  You need only look at our pathetic economic “recovery” and dismal employment opportunities to see how well that has worked out.

While Team Obama and the Democratic Party establishment might be working overtime trying to figure out how best to co-opt the Occupy Wall Street movement for their purposes, this demonstrates how tone deaf the President is:

But Obama also defended his support for bailing out distressed banks after the 2008 financial crisis, saying he “used up a lot of political capital, and I’ve got the dings and bruises to prove it, in order to make sure that we prevented a financial meltdown and that banks stayed afloat.”

Wow.  The President wants us all to feel very very sorry for his trials and tribulations “us[ing] up a lot of political capital”.  Yeah, the banks stayed afloat.  Better than that, they’re bigger today than they were in 2008.  They’re imposing new fees on the 99% and continuing to post record profits.  I’m so glad the President used up so much of his political capital to ensure continued abuses on the lower and middle classes.  I totally remember voting for that kind of change.

Millions of foreclosures in the past 3 years.  Millions more unemployed.  Trillions in taxpayer dollars given away for free to the banks.  Billions in bonuses paid to uncharged criminals who should be doing hard time.

Be careful, Team Obama.  I don’t think the Occupy-ers are stupid enough to fall for the same gimmickry they’ve been abused with in the past again.  Your hypocrisy and lack of principle have been on display.  Talking a harsher game doesn’t employ millions of Americans or put them back in their homes.  We didn’t get real change after 2008.  The ante has been upped.  This isn’t the hand where you bluff in return.

Be careful, Occupy-ers.   Do not let the Democratic establishment get their hands on the controls behind the movement.  They want to defang you and keep their favored elites in place.

But Obama also defended his support for bailing out distressed banks after the 2008 financial crisis, saying he “used up a lot of political capital, and I’ve got the dings and bruises to prove it, in order to make sure that we prevented a financial meltdown and that banks stayed afloat.”