The American Spectator

The Current Crisis

WASHINGTON -- A few weeks back when Clarence Thomas's My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir first came out, there was a flurry of commentary on him and the book. From conservatives there was praise. From the liberals there was a vaguely concealed sense of shock. To them, he seemed sooo angry. Wait a minute. I thought they admired anger. Think of their approbation of the Angry Left. Now the hubbub has quieted down. In fact the book is hardly mentioned. This is typical of the circumstances today surrounding the publication of books. When a book that somehow matters comes out, there is a transient period of excitement, a mixture of hallelujahs or spitballs -- then complete silence.

Yet a book, if it is any good, is a distillation of long and careful thought. It is not -- again if it is any good -- but an extended magazine article. A book is more sophisticated than an article and should command longer attention. If it is very good, a book should provoke thought and comment for a long while after its publication. In the case of Thomas's memoir, I shall be thinking about it and referring to it for a long time. It is one of the best books I have read in years.

It is the chronicle of a complicated and unusual life, accompanied by reflections on that life by a complicated and unusual man. Reading it is a powerful experience. Born a very poor black in a very poor community in the Jim Crow South, Thomas was raised by his tough and deeply decent grandparents. He went through a bizarre period in a Catholic seminary and after that radical years at college and law school. He ended up in government service in Washington. Supposedly, according to his liberal critics, he was the beneficiary of affirmative action, but any sensitive reading of this book makes clear that nothing came easily to Thomas.

Then after difficult but successful years in Washington, both at the Justice Department and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he emerges as a conservative. I take this as proof that Thomas never wanted things to come easily. One of the reasons that so few things came easily to Thomas (he tells us athletics came pretty easily to him) is that usually he has insisted on thinking things out, with a powerful aptitude for reasoning and a critical streak that doubtless he got from his tough-minded grandfather. Another reason, that nothing came easily is that he is black and up from poverty. That last reason is known by all, but after reading this book I came away very much aware that Thomas's powers of ratiocination are first-rate. He is just the kind of person we want on the Supreme Court.

Of course, he is not at all the kind of person liberals want on the court. Rather than having a Justice there who is versed in the law and capable of disciplined thought, the liberals want someone who will make law according to the contemporary liberal whim, a whim that changes rather frequently. Thus the liberals put Thomas through what historians will record as the cruelest Senate hearings in American history. No witness before a Senate hearing has ever suffered such injustice at the hands of the pompous poseurs that went after Thomas. Since surviving that historic atrocity, Justice Thomas has served on the Supreme Court with grace and distinction. For my money, he is the most noble public figure in American life today.

All that the liberals reviewing this book have been able to talk about is its anger. Frankly, I saw very little anger. One of the amazing things about Thomas is his disposition. He is positive, resolute, profoundly decent, and cheerful. That the liberals miss this comes as no surprise. They are increasingly narrow. Thomas admits his failures and forgives his enemies. This is because Thomas is a profoundly religious man, who throughout his life has turned to prayer. My Grandfather's Son is a book about many things, among them spirituality, conservative ideas, modern politics, and race. In fact, Thomas's account of race in modern America is the most reliable I have ever read. Thomas has suffered prejudice from Southern bigots, from other blacks, and to this day from liberals of both races. He writes about it with no ax to grind but with a positive message to impart: one can suffer enormous injustice and not let the (expletive deleted) get you down. This is not a book about anger. It is a book about the satisfied triumph of a good man.

topics:
Books, Law, Supreme Court