Not voting not an option
If, as I am, you are concerned about the direction the federal judiciary has taken our nation over the past 50 years, then you need to support the Republican ticket on November 8th. Perhaps the most lasting act of any president is the appointment of federal judges, especially justices to the Supreme Court. All judicial appointments are for a lifetime, and many judges serve 20 or 30 years or more on the bench. Right now there is one vacancy on the Supreme Court and as many as two or three others will likely occur during the term of our next president. If you are a conservative, then sitting out this election because you do not like the name at the top of the ticket is not a logical option. That just increases the chances of a Clinton victory and the movement of the Federal judiciary, and our country, further left than they already are.
So far Republicans have blocked President Obama’s efforts to make the Supreme Court more liberal by not moving forward with his nomination to fill the current vacancy. However, he already has made the federal judiciary much more liberal with the appointment of more than 325 judges during his two terms. When he took office, only three of the 13 federal circuit courts of appeals had more Democrat-appointed judges than Republican-appointed ones. Now nine of the 13 have a majority of Democrat appointees. This is particularly significant because the Supreme Court takes relatively few cases each term, so the courts of appeals have the final say on a wide range of issues.
The liberal influence on the judiciary has resulted in an erosion of our First Amendment right to the freedom of religion. The pertinent constitutional provision states that Congress “shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion,” but the courts have gone far beyond the concept inherent in those words, which focus on Congressional action to a virtual prohibition of any private expression of faith in a public setting. A liberal Supreme Court gave us the Roe v. Wade decision that “found” a constitutional right to abortion, leading to the deaths of more than 58 million babies since that fateful 1973 decision. And most recently, it overturned millennia of history and culture by redefining marriage so that it is no longer between a man and woman.
If more liberal judges and justices are appointed by a President Clinton, further erosion of freedoms and changes to our culture will likely result. For example, the essential right to freedom of speech is already under serious attack. If you doubt that, read the book “The Silencing” by Kristen Powers. Though a liberal herself, she documents and bemoans the efforts of many on the left to silence any speech that contradicts their worldview. She also exposes the objective of many on the left who argue that limits should be placed on the scope of the First Amendment so that opposition to their agenda can be muzzled. Clinton appointments to the Supreme Court and other courts could provide a sympathetic forum for their arguments.
Likewise, the Second Amendment right to bear arms is under serious attack as the left continues to explore ways to limit its application and make getting firearms or ammunition harder or even to take them from existing gun owners. Again, a liberal judiciary would likely be sympathetic to the left’s agenda on this issue.
These are just a few examples, but the judiciary’s influence is much broader than these concerns, particularly in the interpretation of the multitude of Federal regulations that govern our daily lives. So now is not the time to bemoan the options in the coming election and stay home or vote for a third-party candidate who has no hope of winning. The future of our country is in the balance and electing a Republican president and retaining a Republican majority in the Senate are essential if we do not want to risk further erosion of our rights and a further degradation of the traditional values that have made our country great.
— Joe Cornelison
Maryville
