In 2016 I was at a viewing for a friend’s mother, and inevitably, the subject of the election was raised. My outspoken conservative views hardly a secret, a friend put me on the spot after I voiced my intense distaste for Hillary Clinton.
“I’m surprised at you, Mary,” she said, her hostility barely concealed. “You’re such an intelligent, accomplished woman. Why don’t you want an intelligent, accomplished woman as president?”
“I do,” I replied. “But it has to be the right woman.”
I liked my answer. I still like it. But judging from the way she stalked off, I think it’s fair to assume she didn’t. I was surprised, because I had heard that it would be a non-partisan funeral, so I had worn my best non-partisan outfit.
A waste of perfectly good black rayon.
Talking politics nowadays with anyone outside your own party line is at best, contentious. Bi-partisan debate is like an American trying to order creamed chipped beef on toast from a French waiter off of a French menu. Like a morning person trying to explain the quiet delights of waking at dawn to a night owl. Like a human trying to explain the Kardashians to an alien.
I try not to broach politics with liberal friends, because I literally have no idea what they are talking about. None. I don’t understand the words coming out of their mouths, or why they are putting those words in the order they have chosen (I know, I know, it’s because Republicans are so illiterate and stupid, we don’t understand the simplest of concepts, right? I’ve heard them all, trust me). When I talk to a liberal, I feel like Tom Hanks in the movie “Splash,” waiting for the beautiful Darryl Hannah to speak, and then just hearing dolphin noises. On the rare occasion that politics does come up with a liberal friend, I say very little and keep my side brief and to the point. All they hear are dolphin noises too, so why bother?
I try to stay informed. I am devoted to Fox News, but I watch CNN and MSNBC when I can, hoping partial immersion might help with my confusion, and that I might begin to at least understand some of their dolphin language. Much of the buzz recently has come from their intense dislike of Amy Coney Barrett.
Shocker.
Amy Coney Barrett will most likely be nominated tomorrow to fill the vacancy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the Supreme Court. Trump wants to fill the seat left vacant by a woman with a woman, understandably, and I’m left with the question:
Is she the right woman?
My research was rudimentary, but today I offer you ten fun facts about ACB, hoping it will help you begin to decide for yourself if she is the right person, the right woman, for such a prestigious appointment:
- Summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School
- Clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia
- Nicknamed “The Conenator” by other law clerks, for the ability to destroy flimsy legal arguments.
- Married to Jesse Barrett, a prosecutor with a private practice
- Mother to seven children, one with Down’s Syndrome, two adopted from Haiti.
- Federal judge for three years
- If nominated, will be the sixth Catholic Justice
- Is an “Originalist” or a “Textualist”- meaning she applies the original intention of the writers of the Constitution or the statute at hand
- Once said to Dianne Feinstein: “If you’re asking me whether I take my Catholic faith seriously, I do, though I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear on the discharge of my duties as a judge.”
- Member of conservative Christian faith group called People of Praise- this group teaches that husbands should assume authority as the head of a household.
I like her. I’m honored to say I will be part of the beginning of her lifelong appointment.
The nomination interviews should be fairly brutal. Liberals don’t want her and will vet her to within an inch of her life. But remember, she was already thoroughly vetted by Democrats in 2018, so unless she has taken to crack-pipe smoking or animal abuse in the last twenty-four months, my guess is?
She’s in.
Taking the weekend off to work on content, see you Monday.