The Republicans have failed — once again. The Senate confirmation hearings on Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court have been a farce. Republican senators refused to challenge thoroughly and aggressively Ms. Kagan's transnational, leftist agenda. Instead, they hardly laid a glove on her.
This is inexcusable. Ms. Kagan is one of the most radical nominees to sit on, potentially, the highest court in the land. She is a postmodern academic cultural Marxist. Like Justice Sonia Sotomayor (the "wise Latina"), Ms. Kagan thinks social engineering trumps constitutional self-government: In her view, the role of the courts is not to enforce laws passed by elected legislatures; rather, it is to impose social policy from the top down, negating or circumventing popular will. Call it judicial tyranny masquerading as enlightened activism.
Ms. Kagan admitted her progressive, anti-Madisonian, anti-constitutionalist outlook during the hearings. She said that, while the Framers inserted specific details, such as requiring senators to be at least 30 years old, "there are a range of other kinds of provisions in the Constitution of a much more general kind, and those provisions were meant to be interpreted over time, to be applied to new situations and new factual contexts."
If the Republicans cannot stand up against such a blatantly unqualified nominee and irresponsible ideologue, it is time conservatives consider abandoning the GOP and creating a third party. Ms. Kagan's nomination deserves to be filibustered. That Republicans won't means they are unwilling — or unable — to confront the liberal regime. Ms. Kagan is laughing all the way to the top.
