Instructions… Bottom of FormThe 100 Percent Solution for Radical ConservativesBy. Ron WaltersNNPA Columnist
The Republican attack on Democrats for not approving all 100 percent of their judicial nominations reminds me of the mind-set played out in the political arena over the last few years on issue after issue. The first time was their attack on affirmative action. In general, the numbers of Black students on the various White campuses around the country are modest, mostly below 10 percent. At the same time, White students generally comprise 75 percent or more, with the only exception being in California where Asian students have driven down the number of White students at Berkeley to nearly 50 percent. Nevertheless, with the attack on affirmative action, some campuses in the country could lose Black students as has been the case at several universities around the country. In fact, many colleges have been experiencing a decline in African-American students (not African born students) and I wonder whether the conflict around affirmative action has been a contributing factor. At the same time, several Washington University, MIT, Princeton universities have eliminated their summer programs in math and science that were designed to assist African-American students to achieve at the highest levels in competitive institutions. With finite resources, this results in a reduction of resources available to Black students. With the elimination of Black students, those mounting the attack appear to be saying that they would be comfortable with a 100 percent solution. That is, a few token Blacks or none at all as the result of their challenge to the equal distribution of resources in this society. This 100 percent mind-set is also at work in the current conflict over judicial appointments. The U. S. Constitution, in Article 1, gives the power to each House of Congress to write their own rules, and Rule 22 of the Senate gives a minority of Senators the right to mount lengthy debates, imposing a 60 percent rule for closing that debate. We have come to know this as the ”filibuster,” a term originally used by 19th Century pirates who held ships for ransom. It has been used for 200 years as originally intended by the framers of the Constitution: to provide the minority with a voice in the decision-making process. The Democrats approved 219 of 229 judicial nominees put forth and prevented 10 judicial nominee from being approved that President Bush put forth in the previous session of Congress. Bush got the highest number of first-term nominations approved in better than 20 years. But he wants all of them approved – 100 percent. You have to ask why this mind-set when no other president in American history could expect this result? Even the powerful President Franklin Roosevelt was prevented from packing the court in the 1940s. It is because Karl Rove, the political guru of the White House, recognizes that with the Republican Party dominating all three branches of government, there is a moment of historic opportunity to have radical judges affirmed who will sit on the federal benches and be in line for appointment to the Supreme Court for years to come. Indeed, such a memo was said to have been written by one of Rove’s underlings.The cost of this recent attempt at court-packing could backfire if the Republicans succeed in employing the ”nuclear option” and changing the rules of the Senate to shove their nominees through that body. Doubtless, Democrats will retaliate with their own actions, not only stopping the Senate from functioning now, but if and when they regain control of the Senate, employing similar tactics to defrock or go around the crop of judges that were installed by virtue of robbing the minority of its power to resist. I believe that whereas there was the first Civil War was begun in 1861, and the second begun in 1954, the third could begin in 2005. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland-College Park. His latest book is “White Nationalism, Black Interests” (Wayne State University Press).###
