Many conservatives were rooting for Amy Coney Barrett. They were mildly disappointed that Trump picked Brett Kavanaugh. Time will tell, but I never shared their unbridled enthusiasm for Barrett.
i) She was praised as a devout Catholic. Although Catholics can make fine judges (as well as horrible judges), there's increasing division between liberal Catholic priests and the hierarchy, on the one hand, and conservative Catholic laymen and women, on the other hand. At what point does the top have an adulterating influence on the bottom? When the hierarchy keeps moving left, how conservative can we expect the laity to remain? Mind you, Kavanaugh is Catholic, too.
ii) From what I've read, she has two adopted kids and five biological kids, including one special-needs child. I don't see how she has time to be a mother to seven kids, giving them individualized attention, and also be so career-oriented.
iii) As a complementarian, I think that men are temperamentally more suited to a judicial role than women. Put another way, it's hard enough to find ideologically (and theologically) reliable men in positions of leadership.
I think Barrett lacks experience as a judge too.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if perhaps another reason Trump didn't pick Barrett is because she's too easy to smear as a female quisling straight out of The Handmaid's Tale, which is popular among progressives, especially young progressives. Many progressives seriously seem to think the show is a currently relevant cautionary tale about right wing America under Trump (e.g. see here). In general, talk about living in an increasingly dystopian America under Trump's tyranny seems to be what's trending among the left (e.g. I've seen too many liberal celebrities on popular social media calling on the youth to "vote for democracy" and "against tyranny" obviously alluding to Trump; even in works which are a cut above popular culture, Yale historian Timothy Snyder says the same in light of his published book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century). Ironically, if all this is true, then these progressives are too easily influenced by mass media and popular culture; they have become the unthinking sheep they decry in conservatives.
In fairness, I'm have some doubts about Kavanaugh too.
Joe Carter "9 things you should know about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh".
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