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May I suggest that this entire
discussion could benefit from reading William Connolly on "essential contested
concepts." Alas, there is no neutral definition of "democracy," "judicial
activism," "moderate," etc. out there in large part because a good definition
depends on resolution of normative issues upon which we disagree. Thus, if
it is a debasement of the English language to claim that contemporary
Republicans are more committed to judicial activism than contemporary democrats,
the reason is that our disagreement over what constitutes activist entails that
any competing definition will also debase the mother tongue.
Mark A. Graber
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/22/05 09:19AM >>> "Scarberry, Mark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Put another way, Republicans believe they have at least as good a claim as Democrats to being committed to democratic principles; given their view that Democrats wish to use nondemocratic courts to overturn democratic decisions on matters such as abortion and gay marriage, Republicans see themselves as more democratic than Democrats. Mark makes a good point about which party has the better claim to being more "democratic." The Democratic Party has become the party of government by the judiciary, the party that can't get its social agenda enacted in legislatures, and so looks to judical decrees codifying its policy preferences instead. And this brings up another word--"theocrats"--that gets used a lot these
days to describe citizens of faith who vote for Republican candidates such as
the President. This is another term that better fits the other party and the
actual way it governs. A government that allows all of its citizens--including
its religious citizens--to participate in the political process is not a
theocracy. A theocracy is government by a small body of unelected--usually
robed--rulers who issue decrees based upon their personal pipeline to a higher
and unseen authority. Sounds a lot like the priesthood we call the Supreme
Court, a body of unelected lawyers issuing decrees from the sacred
precincts of its chambers.
Rick
Rick Duncan Welpton Professor of Law University of Nebraska College of Law Lincoln, NE 68583-0902 "When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either Galahad or Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered." --The Prisoner __________________________________________________ |
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