The historic nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she once worked at a clerk, is one more achievement of what has been a highly successful Presidential administration. The fact that this is historic, that Judge Jackson is the first African American woman to be nominated, is significant in multiple ways. Coming at a time when conservatives are increasingly embracing a revival of white supremacy and attacking anything that challenges its fallacies, this nomination, yet another fulfillment of President Biden's campaign promises, stands in contrast to right wing bigotry and prejudice.
But Judge Jackson is one of the highest qualified individuals ever nominated to the Supreme Court, in both the education she brings and in her experience. Her presentation yesterday, at least, the recorded parts of it that I watched later, was impressive. Her ability to redirect Republican attempts to distract and change the narrative, and harp on their own themes was brilliant. It's unfortunate that Senate hearings for Supreme Court appointees have, like everything else the Republicans have done over the past thirty years, turned into a political campaign circus. In political terms, the Republicans took a beating yesterday.
GOP flip flopping and dishonesty on their approach to their last two Supreme Court nominees may have actually done us the favor of being able to dispense with many of the formalities and get Judge Jackson onto the court quickly. Then again, a few more days of televised hearings, with this particular nominee's demeanor, responses to questions and ability to distinguish political baloney from real questions related to her background and experience is a big political advantage for the Democrats right now, very much in contrast to the attitudes being displayed by Republicans on the judiciary committee.
A Shift in Perspective on the Right
Judge Jackson's nomination itself stands in contrast to the agenda-driven attempts by the GOP to make the Supreme Court a partisan political entity instead of the defenders and protectors of constitutional law that it was designed to be. If people are paying attention, what they will see here is a President with real life experience as a member of the Senate, and as the Vice-President, nominating someone who is actually qualified educationally and by their experience, their knowledge of American history and of the Constitution, and whose judicial rulings demonstrate no inkling of partisan bias or political manipulation. That stands in stark contrast to all three of the previous President's nominees, who he nominated as a political favor to a group of his extremist right wing supporters.
Will American voters be able to see the contrast here? Or maybe what I should be asking is whether there will be enough American voters who can see the difference, and are tired of the political shenanigans and dishonesty from the Republican party to go into the voting booth in November and make sure the GOP stays as a minority party for the duration of President Biden's term. The Republicans shriek and flap their lips over judges they claim are "legislating from the bench," but they've got at least five judicial "legislators" on the Supreme Court now, put there by Republican Presidents doing favors for narrow political interest groups. I would like to see President Biden be able to replace at least three more of them, before the end of his first term.
So, a Little Review of the Achievements of the Biden Administration Over the Past 14 Months...
The nomination of the first African American woman, Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson, to the United States Supreme Court is historic, not just because she is the first African American woman to be nominated, but because she has been an absolutely outstanding judge and is as highly qualified as anyone else on the court.
The restoration of confidence in the United States as the world's leading democracy and unifying the NATO alliance as Russia prepared to attack Ukraine was an outstanding foreign policy move. The brilliance of disclosing accurate intelligence regarding the troop buildups and even the dates of attack and invasion was a key factor in creating trust in the US's leadership of NATO. Now the President is going to Brussels to meet with NATO leadership and then on to Poland.
Now, we are seeing a skillful, carefully managed campaign to help Ukraine without triggering a larger conflict or losing any stature as a world leader. This will not be an easy road, but I'll leave it to this President to figure out how to do this and do it as well as it can be done.
Taking the initiative to reach out to China, helping to push them a little further away from helping Russia and toward more support for Ukraine was also a great foreign policy move. The approach carried a firm warning. Given China's response after the conversation, this was effective in achieving its goal. In fact, President Biden's whole approach to the Ukraine war has made Republicans like Ted Cruz, who are just parroting talking points disconnected from real events, look foolish and inept.
The mitigation of the COVID viral pandemic in so many ways that reduced the number of deaths and hospitalizations has been a huge achievement. Management of the widespread distribution of tests and vaccinations, and the successful vaccination of over 70% of the population, in spite of conspiracy-theory propaganda against it, is a major achievement. Measured in terms of the total number of vaccinations, this was a smashing success and a smack-down of the ignorant, fact-denying conspiracy theorists.
The successful passage of an infrastructure bill that the previous administration could not get done should be considered President Biden's signature legislative achievement. This was supposed to be Trump's signature legislation, but instead, largely due to his own falsehoods and failures, was an abysmal failure. Biden got it done right away.
Unemployment is dropping, and job growth is surging. Jobless claims are dropping to record lows not seen since the Clinton administration. Growth indicators have hit records over 70 times during Biden's administration, and even though the media makes it sound like we are in some kind of a great depression because of inflation, these facts seem to be secrets the media wants to keep.
I don't care what the media says about the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan, the facts show that this, too, was a remarkable achievement. Trump wanted out, too, but he bungled the whole thing by undermining the legitimately elected government, as bad as it may have been, and hung out with his dictator-type friends, the Taliban. His direct negotiations with them gave them legitimacy they had lost on the battlefield and his treasonous refusal to participate in the peaceful transition of government when he was legitimately and decisively beaten in the 2020 election made the situation very unstable. But the Biden administration got over 100,000 people out of Afghanistan in short order.
Then There's the Press Conferences
One of the best features of the Biden presidency has been the fact that we don't get all the false statements from the President. Trump was on record as having lied, and that's what I will call it because that's what it was, over 32,000 times. Those are all statements that could be verified to be completely false by a quick examination of the facts. The man just says what comes to the top of his head. The fact that people believe him means they're stupid.
Well, what else can you say? This has been a pattern all of his life. It did not take long before the faces and questions of most of the reporters in the room during one of Spicer's or Huckabee-Sanders' press conferences indicated their opinion that what they were hearing was propaganda, not facts.
Fact check President Biden, and you won't find anything close to that. It's rare for either he or his press secretary, to deliberately tell a lie in the face of facts. And that's just such a change from the way it was, it's like we have to get used to hearing the truth all over again.
Signal Press, committed to telling the truth about President Biden and making sure that the achievements and accomplishments of this remarkable Presidency are put in writing and with an accurate perspective, even though the news media won't do it.
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