The ethical problems of the Supreme Court ultimately lie with voters

How intelligent are American voters?

The ethical problems of the Supreme Court are multi-dimensional which can be boiled down to two categories: structural and systemic factors, and individual characteristics such as integrity and honesty.

Clarence Thomas was suspect from the beginning with the Anita Hill testimony as was Alito who was not a first choice after Harriet Myers, and more recently the Brett Kavanaugh shit show.  Then there was the Mitch McConnell stunt that blocked Obama’s Merrick Garland nomination and gave us Gorsuch instead.

The selection of the Supreme Court justices depends on the ruling parties in the Senate and the House, and the Republicans have moved the worst of these justices through the selection process. What can voters do about this? Make sure that the House and the Senate are populated by Democratic and not Republican majorities. The Republicans seem to have understood and campaigned much more effectively on this issue of stacking the court with partisan judges than the Democrats. Trump brags that he gave us the Dodd decision because he chose and promoted three of the Supremes. He did. It's true. How did this happen?

What has become increasingly apparent is how corrupt and hypocritical the Republican government officials are. The strategy of the present day GOP to stay in power is to lie and engage in violence. Will they be rejected in the 2024 election at all levels of government? It is up to the voters what kind of representatives and people in the executive branch they want representing and working for them. The key to positive change is to vote out Republicans and vote in Democrats or Independents up and down the ballot starting with school board up to Governor and President.

In America we get the government we vote for and deserve. We have no one to blame but ourselves. What can you do to get people to make good voting choices this fall? The future of our country depends on it.

I am reading Ryan Holiday's new book, Right Thing, Right Now, just published two days ago on June 11, 2024 and it covers the four cardinal virtues: Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom. Holiday writes that of the four cardinal virtues justice is the most important. Justice is broadly defined as doing the right thing, right action, which is also one of the eight practices of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path. How many of our politicians manifest this virtue of doing the right thing? Very few. Making this observation might make one wonder how these people get voted into office? Who wants these people to represent them? People at very low levels of spiritual awareness who don't care about right action as a prime value.

I was listening to a podcast today where the person interviewed did focus groups with Trump voters and she said that many said that they voted for Trump because he was entertaining and not boring. Yesterday I watched a very good TED talk on leadership entitled Are We Celebrating The Wrong Leaders by Martin Gutmann. It is well worth watching. Americans love a shit show because of the drama. Good, effective leadership is boring. So in our days of ennui, voters choose entertaining. It's like watching WWE wrestling. People supposedly know the violence isn't real but they like the show and root for their heroes and boo the villains. Unlike WWE wrestling, in America’s political system, the lying, fakery, and violence is real

Same way with the Supremes. It no longer is about justice or wisdom or courage or temperance. It is about power and greed. We voters elected people who selected them so who is ultimately responsible for the lack of ethics in the highest court in the land?

In a democracy where the people vote for their representatives, intelligence of the voters is critical to good government. As we watch the machinations of our current elected officials it seems that the election of many of these people was a mistake. How quickly will American voters learn from their mistakes?