I’ve thought of Jim Buckley in the past couple of days. He is featured in Impromptus today: I publish a letter from him (in which he takes issue with some family lore recounted by his younger brother Bill). Reagan might have done well to put him on the Supreme Court. He was older than Bork. He was much older than Douglas Ginsburg. He was considerably older than Anthony Kennedy. And yet . . .
JLB — Judge Buckley, Senator Buckley — recently celebrated his 90th birthday, and everyone agrees he’s as fit and handsome and sharp as ever. He would be excellent on that bench. Ah, well.
Remember something: The American people are responsible for what happened today (for good or ill). They elected Obama, and reelected him. The president nominates Supreme Court justices. The Senate confirms or rejects them. The American people have elected, and reelected, and reelected, and reelected, a Senate whose majority leader is Harry Reid. They have the country of their choosing.
The Left has completed its long march through the institutions: the schools, the news media, the mainline churches, the entertainment world — all the shaping institutions. That this has had an effect — a momentous effect — who can deny? When Obama and his allies said they were poised to transform the country fundamentally, they weren’t exaggerating, much.