May 26, 2005

Some Thoughts on Debauchery, Racial Epithets, & My Uncle

My uncle has a business employing several people. He always complains about taxes, the required book-keeping, environmental laws, about regulations, about this and that. He doesn't like government much. He believes that government shouldn't interfere in the marketplace as the latter can best self-adjust if left alone. Capitalism, he often lectures me, should be pure and unbridled. It's capitalism alone that has made this country great, he adds emphatically!
He thinks that the New Deal was a socialist revolution! He has praised the decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court of almost 100 years ago, when it decided that worker health and safety laws were infringing upon the freedom of the business! Since, he says, the government has invaded our society and
the result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible! Wow! That's strong language, don't you agree?
My uncle is a self-made man, doesn't quite understand that he didn't grow up in the vacuum of space but in a civil society, albeit one with a very weak social safety net. He takes the view that he doesn't owe anything to anyone. Indeed , he came up through extreme poverty and had a hard childhood. His family worked in the fields to make a living. He never looks back though, as if he's pulled the ladder behind him. Once he made it, he believes others can do it too, on their own without much help from the state. You might say, he's a social Darwinist.
He ran into some problems not so long ago. He got sued and lost his case. He's bitter about that. You see, he used to call some Hispanics on his work force by racial epithets. He doesn't use the same language now, but when we talk about that case, he brings up a sympathetic judge who heard his case. That
judge wrote in her dissenting opinion that the court ordering him to stop from using racial epithets was a violation of his free speech rights! That judge also had the same views with my uncle regarding the economy/capitalism, judicial activism, the ills of government, etc. The two of them even shared life experiences. If I didn't know better, I'd say my uncle and that judge were siblings, or, at least, of same mind and soul.
OK, I can hear you saying that my uncle doesn't come across as a very nice person. He's definitely out of the mainstream. I agree. He is one of a kind, anachronistically old. [and, speaking of old, he also has no problem with age discrimination in the workplace]
What else can I say about my uncle? I'm sure glad that he's not in a position of power to affect the lives of the many. Can you imagine someone like him given a lifetime appointment, and a position on a federal court that oversees all other federal courts, and him making decisions using his ideology and extreme personal biases to interpret federal law? That would be very scary! Thank goodness my uncle is not up to this. Unfortunately someone exactly like him is about to be confirmed by the whipped U.S. Senate to the D.C. court! Her name is
Janice Rogers Brown. Be afraid, be very afraid!

PS. I didn't think I'd have to clarify this, but since my post got responses on Daily Kos from people who thought that my uncle was real, I want to make it clear that he was a fictional character. All I wanted was to elicit responses from people by removing the political affiliation. Most people would say that my ..uncle was way out of the mainstream and clearly unfit to serve on a federal bench having those extreme views of the law, economy, and of politics in general. Well, this is exactly who judge Brown is!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this is the best written article and an approach to explain the extremist views of the people we're getting on the federal bench.
If you came out and said right away that JR Brown is an extremist, many conservatives would just close their ears (and their minds) to anything you'd have to say to support your view. Unfortunately, it's like a sports team, pick one, and then fanatically support it, no matter what..... even if it sucks!
Nominating and confirming these far right judges also tells us a great deal about the people who pick them and support them.
I hoped that my children wouldn't have to suffer due to the failed policies of Bush & the neo-cons, but the federal courts packed with Owen, Brown, Pryor, etc, will screw up our country for many decades to come.... It's sad.

Christine W. LI, NY

Anonymous said...

I don't get this... What kind of more extremists than Brown, Owen, and Pryor, are they expecting to see nominated by Bush? Haters of motherhood & apple pie, and baby killers? Hey, I'm sure there is a prophecy somewhere that says Satan will install his minions in positions of power and turn a great nation into an instrument of evil & destruction!
Al CA

Anonymous said...

Well, this is what you get when you elect the president, the House and the Senate from the same party! Especially when that party is dominated by extremists who want to impose their theology and turn the country into a kleptocracy.... much of what has already happened in Texas! Yeehaw!

Anonymous said...

I've seen it before, people who came up through the tough ranks of life, they never look back, that is, to help others in similar predicaments. It's like when upper classmen torture the rookies simply because they were sujected to same hard conditions earlier....
I think it also shows how a person can turn on his own people. Judge

Brown, although the daughter of share croppers, she doesn't want to make life easier for disadvantaged people.... and she has consistently held that a business has more rights than a person!

Brent

Anonymous said...

Ah, with Brown on the federal bench and others like her we'll certainly cry "uncle!"

Anonymous said...

The New Deal saved capitalism--for those historically challenged people. The market forces having had an open run for many decades brought the country into the Great Depression. FDR saved the country from having a social revolution. (like it happened in other countries)
And, like you said, corporations cannot have more rights than individuals.
Harrison