Strong progressive support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court,
is a chance to further marginalize prejudiced and pro-corporate elements in the Republican Party.
Photo: Larry Downing
June 8, 2009
Much has already been written about the opinions, expertise, credentials and precedent leading up to Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Scrutiny of the past, particularly the 1916 nomination of Louis Brandeis to the Court, should lead progressives to back down not one inch in support for this nomination. This nomination, and strong progressive support for Judge Sotomayor, is a chance to further marginalize prejudiced and pro-corporate elements in the Republican Party.
President Woodrow Wilson’s nomination of Brandeis was a major event in the wide-scale shift in the Jewish community from the Republican Party to the progressive Democrats. Sotomayor’s nomination may do the same in the Latino community, as a relatively moderate jurist is pilloried by the same anti-democratic corporate party voices that demonized the first American Jew nominated to the court.
The Republican party, with its harsh and foolhardy rhetoric, is precipitously driving away the Latino working class vote it needs to survive.
In the history of both Brandeis and Sotomayor, we see the same kind of attacks from the Wall Street Journal and the Republican Party. What is amazing to see, as well, is how much ground the left has given up over the past century. While corporate forces described Brandeis as “radical,” “unfit,” and “rabid” for his fights against corporate monopolies and crass consumerism, President Wilson characterized him as holding to the highest “American ideals of justice and equality of opportunity.”
Brandeis fought for corporate regulation, was a strong critic of the insurance industry, and a chief nemesis of JP Morgan and the trusts. His bold statements on equality and democracy make today’s debate seem like child’s play – “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
Like Brandeis, Sotomayor has been described as a political independent interested in the broader themes of law and public policy. Progressives and the Democratic Party have much to gain in this debate. Do not give an inch.
Adriel Hampton is a journalist, Gov 2.0 and new media strategist, public servant, and licensed private investigator. He is running for U.S. Congress in the 2009 special election for California’s 10th District.
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