A Little Representation Goes a Long Way

We rewrote our elected officials' job descriptions, and now we’re paying for it.

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Dear Reader (excluding those of you unhealthily bothered by other people’s admittedly weird handiwork),

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

No, wait: You are powerless to stop me if you’ve heard this one before, hah! In 1970, Richard Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell to fill Abe Fortas’ seat on the Supreme Court. Critics charged that Carswell was a decidedly mediocre jurist. Sen. Roman Hruska’s defense of Carswell and the nomination is considered a minor classic in political spin. In a TV interview, he said, “Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they? We can’t have all Brandeises and Frankfurters and Cardozos.”

I like this anecdote for a bunch of reasons. Hruska was a good man and he had a perfectly respectable—at times even laudatory—political career. This episode is the only thing he’s remembered for by those other than his friends and family and some Nebraska political junkies. It got ample space in his obituaries, and it’s a good cautionary tale about how small slips of the tongue can end up defining you.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Billy.Faires

    Thank. You.

    Neither extreme wants to see anyone compromising or collaborating across any ailes, ever... unless it means someone on the other aisle walked alllll the way over over and fully supported the hardest line of your side. But even then I suspect they'd just revisit what got agreed upon and sniff it with conspiratorial certainty.

    I really try not to exaggerate when it comes to fears and worst case scenario nonsense, but we simply can't have a healthy, enduring republic if we can't find compromises without getting death threats, and if we fill our national positions of power with circus clowns and social influencers instead of people who, like, think and read and stuff.

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    Tmcke

    Just so you know, this statement is wrong, "Checks and balances work precisely because Congress isn’t like a spleen and the judiciary isn’t like a liver." Checks and balances don't work, because the government behaves not like a well ordered machine but because it shows the frailties of humans.

    Not that I think discussion re theory have much merit - they don't. But has checks and balances worked, Trump would have been impeached or at very least, McConnell would have helped the senate block the worst person ever to be president.

    Our founders needed theory because they had no facts about a government that was brand now. But grand ideas about government are, outside of school, worth little.

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  3. FrankM

    Re Zoe: Let's hope it's just the heat. In the meantime, try a special treat. I buy dried duck gizzards from White Oak Pastures, Will Harris's regenerative farming operation in SW Georgia. They ain't cheap, and the smell upon opening the package is not for the faint of heart. Still, my dog (another dingo derivative, offspring of a promiscuous Carolina Dog mom), adores them, remembers they are there on the days she doesn't get one, and "aroo's" me to fulfill her addiction. Plus, you are supporting White Oak Pastures. Try the Beecon ground beef/bacon for your next burger. (I am only a customer, and receive nothing for suggesting them.)

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  4. Avatar photo
    C C Writer

    "The idea that the president is akin to a parent is a category error. The president is not my boss. He’s definitely not my father. He has no power, moral or legal, to tell me how to live my life beyond the very limited power of persuasion and a few contestable and narrow emergency powers."
    And just to remind everybody one more time: he or she is not the commander in chief of everybody and everything--merely of the armed forces. Nobody commands civilians; they command themselves.

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  5. Avatar photo
    C C Writer

    "So far, reality can’t make that happen."
    That's actually a great concise comeback to a lot of nonsense. I plan to use it sometimes. Not so much that I wear it out.

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  6. Hunter Hustus

    As soon as I saw the photo for this post I laughed out loud. Taylor Green was obviously getting down on her 70's disco with her version of, "It's fun to stay at the Y...."

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  7. Jay Rogers

    The first objective of a politician ..... get elected.
    All subsequent objectives .... get re-elected.
    Pandering to their voters is much easier than actually governing.
    When you get 435+100+1 doing that....well you get what we got.

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  8. Avatar photo
    GREG BROWN

    Considering the arc of biological history (ie, evolution) Woodrow Wilson is correct to view the species as a single organism. It's just that he's thousands of generations ahead of his time. Competition between various groupings of humans will nudge us to become ever more integrated and interdependent. Hell, that was the whole purpose of promoting international commerce - but it will have to happen spontaneously with willing participants. Everyone instinctively knows this, which is why assorted sociopaths and scumbags have such an easy time selling people on socialism despite the fact that it has never once been successful

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  9. Avatar photo
    Alexanderdavit

    Very good piece! As the say “you get what you pay for” and that’s what we have, paid for pols. John MacCain was really onto something with his sweet but short focus on campaign finance. Gerrymandering ranks with it as tools for poor quality. Money talks, quality walks, and the pie is cut by whomever wields the knife.

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  10. Gaspar

    For the most part, that was a heap of incoherent thoughts and unintelligible paragraphs.

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