Stalin Joins Philosophical Fathers of the Right

Some Americans on the political left have been raising the specter of fascism in their opposition to the Republicans. The accusation that the Republicans are moving us towards a fascist state has been compelling to some but the general response has been that our Constitutional government has built in barriers to prevent tyranny. The right has dismissed those expressing fears of fascism as liberal loonies, unmoored in reality.

But when a group of conservatives meet for the express purpose of restricting the independence of the judiciary, when the executive committee of the group sponsoring the conference reads like a "who's who" of religious conservatives, and when a speaker at the conference quotes Stalin as the authority for the right way to deal with "supremacist judges", then the fears of the far left  gain credence.

That's exactly what happened at the "Stop Activist Judges" conference organized by the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration. The conference was designed to "address judicial tyranny from a faith perspective". The participants want to impeach judges, limit the judiciary's power to review legislation on subjects like public prayer,  religious displays, same-sex marriage, empower Congress to vacate legal decisions, and eliminate the court's reliance on binding precedence. They believe the country's biggest problem is the independence of the judiciary and not the war on terror or the deficit. They refer to judges as upholders of satanic principles, a 'politburo', and radical relative secularists.

 The executive committee of JCCCR includes conservative heavyweights like Phyllis Schafly and Rick Scarborough. Speakers at the conference are much more familiar to the average citizen, given that many of them are members of Congress. They included Congressmen Bill Dannemeyer and Lamar Smith, who appeared in Tom DeLay's place (since he went to the Pope's funeral). Staff members from the offices of Senators Hatch and Coburn were speakers. They were on the schedule with representatives of leading conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation, the Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, Vision America, and a host of other such groups.

And the reference to Stalin as a model for responding to the "out of control judiciary"?  That came from Edwin Viera,  a constitutional lawyer who said that Stalin provides the model for dealing with Supreme Court Justice Kennedy: "no man, no problem". Viera is calling for Kennedy's impeachment, but he does so by quoting Stalin's method of killing his opponents. The full Stalin quote, supplied by WaPo reporter Dana Millbank, is ""Death solves all problems: no man, no problem."

This is it. The real face of the extreme right. David Brooks can proclaim the superiority of the conservative movement because of its reliance on great philosophers and disparage liberals as unmoored in philosophical thought, but when the reliance extends to include Stalin his claims ring hollow. There should be a wholesale repudiation on the right of this speaker, this conference, and this attack on our Constitutional separation of powers. It won't come though. We'll wait in vain.

Comments

[eRobin]

I'm still reeling from reading the original story. I can't believe they so blithely quote one of history's greatest monsters. I guess a quote from Jesus about killing judges was too hard to find.

[tas]

I guess Hitler wasn't a big enough of a hero for them.

[Sean Sirrine]

I have a post here that explains why a respect DeLay even though he is utterly wrong on the issue of the judiciary.

As much as I hate his politics, you got to give him credit for not pretending to be something he isn't.

[Kathy]

But he IS pretending to be something he's not. He's pretending to be ethical, jury rigging the ethics rules and committee to keep them from admonishing him a fourth time. He's refusing to address legitimate questions about his conduct in office and instead claiming that it's all a Democrat conspiracy. In the Globe article, he claims he's for an independent judiciary while in the same breath declaring that Congress must exercise oversight over it.

I question the premise for your respect....

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