Candidate Scott Smith Shares His Position On The Recent SCOTUS Nomination
That’s not how it works, that’s not how any of this works.
A significant focus of the discussion surrounding the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become the fate of the Affordable Care Act(ACA). If whether the ACA survives depends on who sits on the Supreme Court, then that conveys two things. First, that the court has been perverted from its intended purpose, and second, that the ACA is and always has been flawed and questionably enacted legislation. This all serves to highlight how problematic, and perpetual, acts that skirt the objective constructs of our system of government can become. The ACA should have been returned to Congress when its flaws became apparent, however it wasn’t. Had it been returned they would have had the responsibility to act, and the voters would have had the opportunity to reward or reject their efforts. Instead the process was short-circuited and damage was done. The echoes of those actions live on to complicate the debate today.
Further, the will of the voters has become a major focus as well. What one must recognize however is the distinction between the “will” of votes cast versus the “will” of votes anticipated. Some argue that we should wait and see what voters will say this November, others that we should honor the will of the voters as conveyed in recent elections. In doing the latter, votes already cast and counted would be honored. While doing the former is an effort to act in accord with what one presumes voters may say.
The elected and appointed, they are but temporary fixtures in government dwarfed by the legacy of the US Constitution and the American experiment. Yet, they never fail to drape themselves with such importance, as when they seek to defy or disfigure the structures of our government, always failing to see, or content to accept, the damage they inflict upon our institutions and the American people. What’s next, deathbed decrees for legislation, “As his dying wish Senator Jones requested that the Jones Act be passed. His colleagues in Congress will now pass his bill though it stood no such chance while he lived.” We do not follow rules that Senators create to satisfy themselves, we do not adhere to the dying wishes of the elected or appointed, that’s not how this works.
What is required is that every Senator make their position clearly known on the matter and that they conduct themselves in accordance with their oath of office, the constitution they’re required to uphold, and the promises they made to their constituents in earning the seat they occupy. The voters will then have an opportunity to make their thoughts clear on the conduct of each Senator and their parties on November 3. Any of the elected who stray from that course, whether to serve party or protect their own reelection, have no business holding office in the first place.