Recent commentary from National Journal:
Social Studies: Can the Death Penalty Be Saved From Its Supporters?, by Jonathan Rauch (July 11, 2000)
The people who stand to gain the most from doubt-reducing steps are the proponents of capital punishment.
Legal Affairs: How the 'Conservative' Supreme Court Leans to the Liberal Side, by Stuart Taylor Jr. (July 11, 2000)
The justices should not consult public opinion before dealing with hot issues.
Media: Anyone But Us, by William Powers (July 11, 2000)
The incumbent liberal media is terribly unpopular. Let's elect a new media, and the sooner the better.
Legal Affairs: Oops -- There's Much, Much More Gore And Reno, by Stuart Taylor Jr. (July 6, 2000)
Gore's April 18 testimony illustrates how slippery and disingenuous (if not perjurious) he can be even when under oath.
Media: Swing Low, Sweet Press Corps, by William Powers (July 6, 2000)
Flashback candidate Ralph Nader calls Gore and Bush "the drab" and "the dreary." The depressing thing is, he's right.
Political Pulse: Drilling for Blame, by William Schneider (Junly 6, 2000)
Many voters are suspicious about the causes of soaring gasoline prices. And with good reason.
More from National Journal.
Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte.
Political Pulse:The Court Still Amazes and Outrages
July 11, 2000
"The Soopreme Court follows th'iliction returns," Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley once said. Maybe not. At least, there was no evidence of any political or ideological sensitivity in the Court's outpouring of end-of-session decisions last week. Remember, seven of the nine Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents. But conservatives found very little to cheer in the presumably conservative Court's rulings. Certainly not its quick dismissal of the Elián González case.
The Court let Elián González go home. And the big political winner? The American public, which held steadfastly to the view that this was a human tragedy and not a political issue. The public showed its wrath toward anybody who tried to politicize Elián's plight. That included the Cuban-American community, which found itself scorned and isolated. Cuban-Americans' worst nightmare came true. Elián went back to Cuba, and there were signs of an American opening to Cuba when the House voted to allow U.S. farmers to sell food there.
After the federal raid on the Miami relatives' home in April, outraged congressional Republicans threatened to investigate -- and got slapped down by an approving public. When Al Gore tried to score political points with Cuban voters, he ended up offending everybody. Juan Miguel González knew exactly whom to thank when he left for Cuba last week with his son. He thanked "the North American people" for their "intelligence and warmth." He might also have learned something about democracy. On this one, the people prevailed. And the politicians trembled before them.
Conservatives certainly weren't happy when the Court struck down a Nebraska law banning late-term abortions. "Does the deck seem stacked against those who oppose abortion?" Justice Antonin Scalia asked in his dissent. "You bet." The big political losers in that case were both Gore and George W. Bush. Why Gore? The Vice President tried to declare himself a winner. He said the 5-4 decision showed that a woman's right to choose was on the line, and that only he could be trusted to protect it. "The next President will nominate at least three justices to the Supreme Court," Gore warned. "One extra vote on the wrong side would change the outcome, and a woman's right to choose would be taken away."
But Gore is also left with the burden of defending late-term abortion, which most Americans consider an abhorrent procedure. Voters do not equate the "right to choose" with the right to have an abortion in any and all circumstances. Meanwhile, the Court's decision puts the abortion issue front and center in the presidential campaign. Exactly where Bush does not want it to be. Outrage over the decision among anti-abortion activists puts even more pressure on him to pledge that he will name only anti-abortion Justices to the Supreme Court -- a pledge he has so far avoided. And as far as choosing an abortion-rights supporter as his running mate, that looks riskier than ever for Bush.
The Court also refused to overturn its 1966 Miranda ruling requiring arresting officers to inform suspects of their rights. The big shock came from Chief Justice William J. Rehnquist, who had long been critical of Miranda. And whom conservatives expected to seize the opportunity to overturn it. Boy, were they disappointed. Rehnquist did not see the case as a chance to overturn a bad liberal decision. He saw it as a challenge by Capitol Hill to the Court's authority. At issue was a law passed by Congress in 1968 that sought to reverse the Miranda ruling. Would the Court endorse the view that Congress was right and the Court was wrong -- after 32 years?
No siree. "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is," Rehnquist wrote. Miranda stays. So there.
Conservatives -- as well as liberals -- may have cheered the Court's decision to strike down California's blanket primary law allowing voters of one party to participate in another party's primary. The state has no business, Justice Scalia argued, "forcing political parties to associate with those who do not share their beliefs." The problem is that fewer and fewer people share their beliefs. Which is why California voters approved the blanket primary law in the first place, when it came before them in an initiative on the 1996 ballot. And in the second place, when voters rejected an initiative attempting to modify the ballot law two years later.
Remember the ad that said, "This is not your father's Oldsmobile"? America's political parties face the same problem. They've become brand names that elicit less and less loyalty from voters. Particularly younger voters who are inclined to say, "Democrats? That's my father's party. Republicans? My mother liked those."
Partisans are fans. If a team is losing fans, fewer and fewer people will show up at the games. If the parties are losing fans, fewer and fewer people will show up at the polls. Which is exactly what's happened to voter turnout. In 1996, most voting-age Americans didn't even bother to vote for President.
The parties are being confronted by personalities whose appeal crosses party lines -- figures like Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura. And John McCain, who welcomed "Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, and vegetarians" under his banner. The question is, how much longer can the Republicans and Democrats freeze these candidates out? The Supreme Court's answer: a little longer.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte.
More from National Journal.
More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly.
William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C.
For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com.
All material copyright © 2000 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |