Supreme Court

Supreme Court

Authors of the constitution worried about mob rule and dictatorship.  For that reason they tried to set up a system of what has come to be known as checks and balances. 

Mob rule was to be curtailed by only allowing direct citizen elections for the house of representatives _  local voting qualifications determined by each state.  The senate was to be provided by state legislatures, and the president selected by a committee of wise men.   Assuming that these three branches would fight tooth and nail for power and money, the judiciary was provided as a non-elected referee.  Regardless of what originalists may fantasize, our current government does not resemble that designed by the founders.  Majority mob rule directly elects executive, senate, and house.

Federal checks and balances are now provided by three conflicting power centers:  (1) elected mob-rule formal government (president,senate, and house), (2) ongoing immense bureaucracy implementing accepted laws and rules, and (3) corporate plutocracy headed by the military-industrial complex.  The judiciary still tries to referee, but recently politics has become weaponized into strict party mob rule which threatens judicial independence.

Note that the number of justices is set by law, not by constitution.  There have already been attempts to “pack” the supreme court _ simply appointing new judges until a majority favoring the current mob is in place.  It is likely that packing will become commonplace over the next decades until a new consensus of political boundaries is reached.

Conservative principles used to mean something important about preserving individual rights.

An "originalist" who refuses to understand the founders' proper fears of executive power is no traditional conservative.  A "textualist" who does not understand that power centers now reside in massive international corporations never conceived of by the authors of the constitution is no traditional conservative.

And  a judge who believes eighteenth century beliefs should not be modified by the realities of modern technology, philosophy, and being should be rejected by real conservatives concerned about the imperial direction this country is suddenly rushing into.