Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, an icon to women everywhere for her tireless and brilliant work to gain equal rights and opportunities for women (and also for men), is gone. She died after a courageous battle with cancer on September 18th. The country wobbles and grieves the loss of her. And yet, even before she is in the grave, leaders of the Republican Party are fiercely positioning to replace her.

And this is wrong, because…? It is not wrong because it is the Republican Party. Read carefully. It is wrong because they made a vow in 2016 that vacancies on the Supreme Court should not be filled in a presidential election year. Barack Obama retreated from filling a Supreme Court Justice vacancy during his last year in office because of these promises and pressures from the Republican leadership.

In 2016 Senator Lindsay Graham said, “I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, ‘Let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.” Now Senator Graham and others are backtracking, insisting that these are different times.

Yes, they are. Apparently keeping in power is more important than keeping one’s word. Jesus was clear that what guides our decisions and our words should not be cultural or current shifts, but instead should be the strength of our character. We live in times in which the bully is more powerful than the honorable person. We live in times when power eats values for breakfast.

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