One
of the founding fathers of modern conservatism, Richard
Viguere, explains. Excerpts:
The confirmation fight over Judge Sonia
Sotomayor shouldn't be approached as merely about filling a vacancy on the
Supreme Court. Even as important as that
is, this confirmation fight is bigger than that. It is a fight about whether the Constitution
any longer constrains the power of government by and according to its
terms. It is about President Obama's view
of government power versus the view held by most Americans.
…
Those who see this confirmation battle as
about just Judge Sotomayor miss the larger point. This is really about President Obama's
harmful and dangerous view of government power.
President Obama wants to remake and thereby
weaken America by avoiding the constraints in the Constitution and its
structure for political accountability.
He is faced with circumstances that make that possible: (1) economic turmoil, (2) a sycophantic
press, (2) a passive and sympathetic Congress, and (4) a judiciary that too
often refuses to insist that the other two branches act within their enumerated
powers. He has taken advantage of those
circumstances to expedite his government power grab at a dizzying pace. If Americans had time to absorb what he was
doing and the freedoms they were losing, he would not succeed.
We are distracted by Obama's blitz because
we have too many attacks on our system to confront effectively at once. That is why it is important for conservatives
to focus foremost on the Sotomayor confirmation fight. Within that one fight alone we can address
the very reasons why, as polls show consistently, conservatism is twice as
popular as liberalism. This confirmation
fight can weaken Obama's march to a form of government inconsistent with the
Constitution if conservatives grasp the challenge.