So now, it is fascinating to watch as people work themselves up about Joe Biden committing to choosing a Supreme Court nominee from a group that has long been overlooked: Black women.
It is identity politics and affirmative action, they scream.
The irony here is that Ronald Reagan, the Republicans’ patron saint before the rise of Trump, made a similar promise in 1980 when he was in trouble with women for not supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. He promised to nominate a woman — again the word “white” was silent — and that’s how we got Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Brian Tyler
Cohen said it best in his podcast which I show in this snippet.
We’ve learned over decades and decades of struggle that in this great country there’s almost always more than one qualified candidate for any top job, Supreme Court included. But we need to watch the selection process to make sure the folks in charge aren’t always just picking the qualified people they’re most comfortable with. If we hadn’t gotten past that, we never would have gotten past a table full of white guys for everything.
I want to belong to a political party that knows how to win while embracing inclusion. However, as usual when it comes to our current president, I admit that the messaging has been clumsy.
Remember Joe Biden limped into the South Carolina primaries in 2020. He had finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, and second — a distant second — in Nevada.
During a debate just days before voting began in South Carolina, Biden made a promise to Black voters. Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and everyone should be represented on the Supreme Court, he said: “I’m looking forward to making sure there’s a Black woman on the Supreme Court, to make sure we in fact get every representation.”
This opening could not have come at a better time for Biden. He is struggling in the polls, unable to overcome Republican obstructionism and resistance from within his own party to deliver on several of the major promises he made to Black voters, such as passing federal police reforms and voter protections.
Poll after poll has pointed to growing dissatisfaction among Black voters.
No justice Biden nominates can change the ideological balance of the court significantly, but all new justices change the dynamic on the court. And every time an excluded group is included, that is good for the institution and its credibility.
It is important, I believe, that Black people have a Black person on the court more in tune with the views of the Black community than Clarence Thomas, the lone Black justice for the last 30 years. It has always struck me as a tragedy that Thomas was chosen to replace the liberal lion Thurgood Marshall.
Only when we remove the concepts of whiteness and maleness from the concept of power can we see the damage the association has done. Only then can we truly accept and celebrate the power of inclusion, diversity and equity. Only then can representative democracy in a pluralistic society begin to live up to its ideals.
Thanks for Listening.