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The Prowler is right on target (not just because he agreed with my earlier blog, but because his prescriptions are, as usual, also quite sage) in saying that Brett Kavanaugh deserves confirmation and that the GOP should put judges front and center. To add to that thought, I repeate a litany I have written before and which should be repeated as often as possible until the Senate blockheads finally understand it: When the issue is judges, we win.

By "we," of course I mean conservatives. And we win for a number of reasons. We win first on substance because the AMerican people instinctively know that predictable and understandable interpretations of the COnstitution and laws are essential to fair governance... which means that "originalism" and its related conservative ideals of jurisprudence are political winners (which, by the way, Alito and Roberts both helped demonstrate).

We also win, though, because when judging is framed as purely political issues, the results play to our advantage as well. To be clear: Conservatives do not believe in "result-oriented jurisprudence." But because it is liberal judges who tend to engineer bizarre and unpopular results (because normal majoritarian processes yield opposite results from what the liberal social engineers want), the usual run of things is that conservative (originalist, textualist, etc.), restrained jurisprudence usually yields results that in themselves just so happen to be popular, too.

E.g., when the subject is abuse of eminent domain to take private property for other private use, we win.

When the subject is partial birth abortion, we win. When the court case at hand involves the Pledge of Allegiance, we win. On judicially imposed homosexual unions, on judicially mandated taxation, on hostility to all forms of faith in the public square (or lack of such hostility, which is the conservative position), on bizarre expansions of the regulatory state, and especially on issues of law and order, we win, win win, we win, we win, and we win again!

Finally, in all recent election cycles, when GOP Senate candidates campaign hard on the issue of judges.... well, guess what? Gee, how did you guess: THEY WIN!

So why does a Republican Senate still sit on its haunches rather than moving hard and fast to confirm solid judicial nominees more quickly? Either they are just flat-out moronic and ignorant of the importance of judges on principle, or moronic and unprincipled.... or else they don't actually want to win. I think they do want to win. Which doesn't say much for their motives or their, uh, judgment.

topics:
Abortion, Constitution, Law, Unions