When U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas announced that he would not vote to confirm Judge Katanj Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, he cited her legal work on behalf of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
He intentionally misrepresented the facts and indicated that he would not endorse her nomination because of the way she advocated for those that she was representing. She was a public defender and later continued her work defending Guantanamo detainees as an assignment from her law firm.
Cotton’s criticism was not only without merit, it struck at the very heart of our judicial system that guarantees legal counsel for any person accused of a crime.
His comments and the rationale voiced by others who chose not to vote for her confirmation unmask the pernicious partisanship that has infected our Congress and our country.
Justice Jackson’s credentials for sitting on the Supreme Court are outstanding. She had been confirmed for her prior judgeships by the same people who now voted against her. What changed is a deepening of the visceral divisions that are roiling our nation today.
Radical partisanship is not a one-sided phenomenon. It is practiced on both sides of the political aisle. Unfair and out-of-order questions were flung at the most recent appointees to the high court.
The nominees were also the victims of allegations that were not true. Some of the reasons for no votes for these nominees were no more substantive than Cotton’s.
To be sure, there is enough condemnation to go around when we truthfully examine the lack of civility, intellectual dishonesty, and posturing that now clouds the process of confirming Supreme Court Justices.
The late Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., who served as 47th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, frequently quoted the astute observation that all politics is local. O’Neill represented Cambridge for 34 years and served as Speaker for 10 years. He was a judicious and intelligent statesman.
His brand of politics was practiced by many legislators in his day. It enabled political archrivals to sit down for a cordial drink at the end of the day. Since there was an obvious commitment to the common good and the well-being of the nation, compromise was always within reach.
Disagreements about foreign policy stopped at the water’s edge, a continuation of the famous Vandenberg Resolution in 1948 that helped bring about NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
What Tip O’Neill knew in his gut is that possibilities in Washington were closely aligned with sentiments in all the congressional districts around the nation.
In those days, people were elected to Congress who best represented the judgments and aspirations of their constituents.
These same sentiments were translated into the laws that would shape our nation. Were Tip O’Neill alive today, it is a sure bet that he would tell us that the intransigence and dysfunctionality in Washington is an absolute reflection of the obstinacy and narrow-mindedness that exists across our nation today.
It is relatively easy to wax eloquently about the cause of this national tragedy. Cable news, the internet, Twitter and all the rest exacerbate the intransigence that surrounds us.
Because the stakes are so high and the common good is suffering so badly, real attention needs to be focused on how we address this sad situation.
Tip O’Neill’s wisdom tells us that each of us is important in the legislative process. Because public opinion does drive public policy, what we all think about issues, bipartisanship and the calamities that beset us is very important.
Everyone has a role to play if our nation is to ever grow beyond the paralysis that surrounds us.
Holy Week and Passover intersect this week. For Jews and Christians, they embody stories about great suffering, which can only be appreciated through thoughtful reflection. In a mysterious way, suffering has the potential to rescue us from the partisan swamp in which we now find ourselves.
Families have squabbles that can become quite hurtful. When a real tragedy strikes, these squabbles have a way of disappearing. When our nation was attacked on 9/11, there was a sense of unity of purpose, captured by President Bush addressing the nation from a pile of rubble in New York City.
When COVID-19 struck in March of 2020 and everything shut down overnight, there was a common purpose that we needed to defeat this archenemy.
Both Holy Week and Passover take place within the Muslim month of Ramadan. While fasting is not real suffering, it does create solidarity with those who are food deprived, which should translate into kindness and generosity.
Our religious traditions hold within themselves the power to be transformative. Whether we acknowledge it or not, our world is at war. In our own lives, we all need to become more reflective and open to one another.
As the old expression goes, we have met the enemy and he is us. It is past time for us all to take a deep dive into our own prejudices and unmask them for the evil they allow to flourish.
Msgr. Paul Garrity is a senior priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and former pastor at St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn.
