Up or Down:

An up or down vote. That’s all they were asking for, Bush. Your Republicans made it sound so clear, so fair, so simple. They are good at this, your people: making things simple for simple minds. Finding the language to sell the product, no matter whether the product is a worthy one or not. No matter whether it’s what we need or not. The important thing is that it’s your product, and you want us to buy it.

So this up or down thing was all about those products that you want us to buy. Those judges. They are yours. They will fall nicely in with your corporate line. No matter that you had already sold us 200 or so products in this line, here were ten more that you wanted us to buy, and you were furious when a few us said no thanks, we didn’t like them. So the sales language got down to the deadly simple: an up or down vote.

Yesterday I sat for an hour and read Senator Barbara Boxer’s eloquent speech to the United States Senate on this matter. She spoke at length about the history of the filibuster, about the Senate rules on the filbuster, and about the constitutional duty of the Senate to advise and consent. She spoke about the filbuster as a built-in protection against the potential tyranny of party politics. And she spoke at length about her opposition to your nominee, Janice Rogers Brown, whose judicial record she described in unsparing detail—-a record of decisions so extreme as to be almost unbelievable in their radical conservatism. Thirty-one times, as a Supreme Court judge in the State of California, she stood alone against six of your Republican judges, Bush, and a single Democratic judge to assert positions so outrageous, so extreme as to defy all mainstream American thought. Check it out.

I mean, have you actually read the record of this Janice Rogers Brown, Bush? Or was she nominated simply on the strength of her background; because she’s black, because she rose from poverty, because she (altogether admirably) overcame all obstacles to reach her goals? Because, despite her radical positions, she can be the poster child for the African American success story? And because she could be sold, cynically, under the guise of diversity, and still promote your ideological agenda?

A simple up or down vote. It sounds so clear, so simple. Until you bother to do the math, and realize that a simple up or down vote in the current Senate means the rigorous, arrogant assertion of pure Republican power, as though that in some way reflected the will of the electorate. Your folks have dumbed down the American people, Bush, to the point where they go no further than the sound bite. They don’t do the math. They’ll swallow any lie that’s told in language simple and clear enough for them to understand. To the point where we are all nothing more than good consumers of your truth, your ideology, your product.

Up or down. Black or white. With us or against us. The axis of evil. The war on terror. Support our troops. Drink Coca Cola.

In my opinion, Bush, the “compromise” that I hear about this morning is a sham. At best it’s a stall to save the Senate’s face, to avoid the “nuclear option.” It’s an appeasement. Janice Rogers Brown still gets her up or down vote.