OPINION:
The spirit of Rodney Dangerfield no longer stands alone. The comedian who complained that “I don’t get no respect” now speaks for just about everybody. In modern America, “nobody gets no respect.”
Respect for the nation’s institutions is ever more grudging and scarce. Nobody likes Congress. The liberals and the left don’t like soldiers and policemen. The right is contemptuous of the academics and mainstream media that long ago lost connection to the mainstream. Everyone is suspicious of the criminal justice system and almost nobody is satisfied with how elections are run. Even the president of the United States “don’t get no respect.”
Americans have always been world-class grumblers. It’s what we pay for the liberty and freedom to speak up, loud and long. That’s what makes America special. That includes the freedom to overdo it, too. The courts, and especially the U.S. Supreme Court, have always stood above the smoke and noise, and in spite of controversy and anger the courts have generally been honored and respected as the fair arbiters of disputes. Judges get the benefit of doubt and disappointment.
But now, not so much. The consequences of this example of hyperpartisanship is that the authority of the judicial system is under withering fire from the sidelines, with U.S. senators and the president attacking not just the judicial system, but judges themselves.
President Trump, earlier insulted not just an American judge of Mexican descent but Mexico, too, when a court ruled against him. He routinely takes to Twitter to question not just the judgment, but the motives and competency of judges who decide against him. Senators seek out the television cameras to denounce a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, a man who has served honorably and well, as an enemy of the Constitution and American freedom, and must be stopped by any means necessary.
Characterizing someone who holds a contrary opinion as someone not just wrong, but evil, is un-American and undermines public faith in the institutions that make the nation tick. A federal judge dealt President Trump and his immigration order a setback last week, and his administration is appealing the decision, as it should. The final decision is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court, and many lawyers think the president’s position will be sustained. But even a president must understand that presidents, like everyone else, sometimes win and sometimes lose.
Mr. Trump has shown disrespect for both the judiciary system and the men and women who serve. Some are Democrats and some are Republicans. Some are liberals and some are conservatives. They differ in the way they interpret the law, but the Constitution gives them their independence for a good and sufficient reason. That reason must be respected by presidents, members of Congress, and even the professoriat and the press.
Confirmation hearings on the nomination of Neil Gorsuch have not yet begun, but his critics are already portraying him as incompetent, hostile to the Constitution and even “morally unfit.” These are games the press and the politicians play, but there’s a time and place for games, and a time and place for responsibility and maturity. Everyone should chill and let the system work. It always has.
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