Are Jews the New Wasps?

JJ Goldberg thinks (0.00 / 0)

Obama should have nominated a Prostestant, given that Democrats have long made the case that diversity in and of itself is a important value.

I’m thinking more and more that the president should have nominated a Protestant to the court. Think about it: Liberals have been arguing for decades in favor of diversity as a fundamental value in schooling, hiring and choosing governing/decision-making bodies. How can a Democratic president take the step that renders the Supreme Court devoid of a single member of America’s majority? Even from a purely political point of view, how can a Democrat facing a tough midterm election send the message (however unintended) to the country’s majority demographic group, which happens to be the demographic that’s most wary of Democrats, that they’re not valued?

Full post here. 

So, after reading what Mae and JJ have to say on the topic, I find it hard to get worked up about either the absense of Protestants or the abundance of Jews on the Court. 

Mae, I was puzzled by the reasons you listed in your post. Do you really think that you have to be some kind of Jewish supremacist to support the President's nominee? How about... because you think she is a brilliant jurist and would make a great Justice? Or maybe you don't think the religion of the members of the Court matters very much? Or because it is just another sign that Jews, and women, have moved beyond tokenism? Or that the political analysis is that, contrary to at least one line of reasoning in JJ's post, most people don't care about the religion of members of the Supreme Court?

For me, it is a little of all-of-the-above. I think there are fair arguments to be made that someone else might have been a better choice. But I can't see advocating for proportional representation of various groups in our public institutions. If that were true, we'd have no Jews on the Supreme Court. Or in any other national body with fewer than 50 seats.  Would it be a bad thing if there were two or three African American Justices, even though that would place them at double or triple their proportion in the population?

JJ thinks Protestants will be upset not to see one of their own on the Supreme Court. But... I can't see it. When was the last time we saw the kind of angry backlash in public life based on Protestant resentment of Catholics and/or Jews? Take away the fringe elements, and it just isn't there. Race and gender and sexual orientation, even region, are today MUCH more powerful forces of division than the tensions among Christians or between Christians and Jews. Now, if there were going to be three Mormans, or (gasp!) athiests on the Court... well, that's a whole different story. But Jews and Catholics (as evidence by, say, their CURRENT numbers on the Supreme Court without protest) are clearly in with the Protestant majority. 

 

 

 

 

"When something important is going on, silence is a lie." -- A.M. Rosenthal

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by: Mik Moore @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 02:16:04 AM UTC

talking it out... (0.00 / 0)

Mik--Thanks for your thoughtful comments...I really wasn't trying to make an argument with my post that progressive Jews shouldn't support her. I posted about this because I was actually curious how people think about what is going on. I wrote the first arguments about why it it's fine to have such a large number of Jews on the Supreme Court that came to my mind and I wasn't satisfied with any of arguments. In fact, I thought my own arguments were pretty dangerous stories, some of which I've learned within the my Jewish community. So, your analysis is really helpful for me.  

 

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by: Mae Singerman @ Mon May 17, 2010 at 15:31:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

another take on this (0.00 / 0)

from CNN here. argument boils down to this: six Catholics + three Jews = nine Protestants, because the differences are not super meaningful.

"When something important is going on, silence is a lie." -- A.M. Rosenthal

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by: Mik Moore @ Fri May 21, 2010 at 15:43:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

comb hair (0.00 / 0)

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by: guoxing @ Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 03:35:14 AM UTC