I had been planning to write a post about the troubles of discerning truth in an age of political polarization, with a concrete example of the nomination of Thomas Farr for a seat in a U.S. District Court. The Democrats have been four-square against him, both now and back in President Bush’s tenure, when he was also nominated. Their complaint was that he represented Jesse Helms back in the day, and was instrumental in the voter suppression efforts ever since, usually used against black communities.
This was denied by the Republicans, and in fact the lone black GOP Senator, Tim Scott of South Carolina, stated he had discussed the matter with Mr. Farr and had come to the conclusion that he could support him. This left only Senator Flake (R-AZ) as the only Republican Senator voting no, and in his case it’s a protest against the failure of Senator McConnell to bring the Special Counsel protective legislation up for a vote. From the News Observer:
Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and the only black Republican in the Senate, called Farr on Wednesday and spoke with the author of a Department of Justice memo obtained by The Washington Post this week before casting his vote to advance Farr on Wednesday. Scott also spoke with Obama appointees about Farr.
“If he was the architect of that nasty, racist campaign, I would have been a ‘no’ without question. What I found so far from appointees of the Obama administration to my conversations with the author of the memo is that he was in fact not the architect of the campaign and that the character witnesses from the Obama administration coming forward on behalf of Tom Farr have been pretty strong,” Scott told Fox News Channel’s “Fox News at Night” on Wednesday.
So how does a casual observer come to a conclusion on this particular incident? Are the Democrats becoming tribalists, which would be awful for the nation?
However, the story changed in just a couple of hours. From CNN:
Republican Sen. Tim Scott announced Thursday he would oppose President Donald Trump’s nominee to be a US district judge in North Carolina, effectively ending the nomination that had been plagued with accusations that Thomas Farr supported measures that disenfranchised African-American voters.
“This week, a Department of Justice memo written under President George H.W. Bush was released that shed new light on Mr. Farr’s activities. This, in turn, created more concerns. Weighing these important factors, this afternoon I concluded that I could not support Mr. Farr’s nomination,” Scott said in a statement.
Scott, who is the Senate’s sole black Republican, told reporters Wednesday that he wanted to speak to the author of a 1991 memo obtained by the Washington Post, which outlines a controversial postcard campaign distributed by the 1990 campaign of Sen. Jesse Helms that the Justice Department said were used to intimidate black voters from going to the polls.
Scott’s decision to oppose Farr prevented Farr from being confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans hold a 51-to-49 seat majority. Also opposing Farr was Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who has sworn off advancing Trump judicial nominees until the chamber votes on a bill to protect special counsels such as Robert Mueller. All 49 Democrats opposed the nomination.
There’s not a lot of insight to be drawn from this. We know that Trump’s selections for judges is not guided by good judgment or some sort of process that rewards both competency and good character. We know that both sides are becoming more and more tribalistic, and I believe that this will lead to a breakdown in one of these parties in the not too distant future, and I think the GOP is the leading contender.
The Democrats have to find a way to stand strong while preserving their trademark penchant for disagreements and even, yes, squabbles. That’s the yeast that keeps them going. The lack of that will turn the GOP into a pillar of salt.
