I have long suspected former White House staffer Ben Rhodes never actually liked the Constitution. On Tuesday, in a tweet regarding the Supreme Court leak of draft orders overturning Roe v. Wade, he confirmed as much. Rhodes whined about how our government works and has worked since 1787, regarding Supreme Court justice appointments. Moreover, he insinuated these long-standing traditions were not indicative of a legitimate democracy.
“George W. Bush and Donald Trump both lost the popular vote and appointed five of these judges who will shape American life (and, on climate, life on Earth) for decades,” Rhodes tweeted. “Some democracy.”
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He is wrong here on multiple counts.
First of all, Bush won a majority of the popular vote in 2004 before he appointed John Roberts (in September 2005) and Samuel Alito (in October 2005). So Rhodes, who is known for bragging about how he misled journalists on purpose, is already wrong even if you accept his tendentious (and incorrect) assertion that the national popular vote means something.
Second, the Supreme Court is not supposed to “shape American life.” It is a court that decides legal cases. This is one of the glaring defects of Roe: that the court stepped far outside of its rightful role.
Third, the Constitution deliberately shields judicial appointees from considerations of popularity or politics — this is why they are given lifetime appointments. Regardless of whose ox is being gored, an independent judiciary is, by its nature, anti-democratic, and that’s a good thing.
Next, sticking with Rhodes’s flawed logic and assertions about our “democracy,” someone should question Rhodes about exactly how much public support is necessary to appoint a Supreme Court justice. After all, former President Bill Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court during his first term — Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer — despite having won only 43% of the national popular vote. Were those justices therefore illegitimate?
Or is Rhodes just a partisan hack, upset that after many decades, the rules are finally working against him and his belief that butchering babies is a legitimate method of birth control?
