Prisoner’s Dilemma, Or Why the President’s Still Got Game
There is nothing between civility and anarchy but the law. And that is at best a mere gossamer of hope. One can argue that American culture in its most inspirited expression is defined by our willingness to create legal justice. We have a long way to go, no doubt. But without the law, what are we? Whoare we but for the law? As a “people” Americans are too diverse, too complex socially, religiously, and culturally to be any one people but for the law. What we share is the political and what we are as Americans depends wholly on the ways we are protected and defended by the law. Today’s comment on politics and the Supreme Court follows here. The new President-elect will withdraw Judge Garland’s nomination. Bet on that. So why has Senator McConnell taken to this particular hypocrisy? He has said the people’s voice needs to be heard —has it?— while Republican leadership means to thwart their own people’s voices who have given the majority of delegates to Donald Trump. The sound of treacle you hear here is more than simple hypocrisy. It has wrapped itself in an alternative universe governed by casuistry and delusion. Does Senator McConnell really think that the current debacle of Presidential nominees stands the ghost of a chance come November? Of course he does. Living in the phantasmical bubble is the norm. Do remember Karl Rove’s panicked disbelief on Fox News when it was announced last time that Romney had lost Ohio and the election —and went on to lose the popular vote by 5.5 million. There is no limit to the way a human narrative of conviction can overwrite reality. One might say that politics is, like religion, the triumph of ideology over reality.
