Opinion| Lawrence David| Following the Supreme Court’s Bowstock decision yesterday, Josh Hawley delivered a powerful rebuke of the GOP establishment on the floor of the Senate.
Sen. Hawley is a committed conservative which means he is as deeply committed to the process as he is to the outcome. The freshman senator from Missouri excoriates his fellow senators:
… Article III does not give the United States Supreme Court, or any federal court, the power to legislate, but only the judicial power to decide cases and controversies… not to decide policies.
But I will also say that everybody knows, every honest person knows, that the laws in this country, today they’re made almost entirely by unelected bureaucrats and courts… They’re not made by this body.
Why not? Because this body doesn’t want to make law. That’s why not!
Because in order to make law you have to take a vote. You have to be on the record. And, to be on the record is to be held accountable. And, that’s what this body fears above all else Madame President.
This body is terrified of being held accountable for anything on any subject so can we be so surprised that where the legislature fears to tread, we’re the Article I body, this body that is charged with the Constitution for legislating, refuses to do its job, Courts rush in and bureaucrats, too!
… Are they accountable to the people? No! Not at all. Do we have any recourse? Not really.
Hawley then moves on to castigating the Mitch McConnell led Decepticons… the RINOs… who dominate the Republican Party for reneging on what he called “The Conservative Bargain”…
“Now we must wait to see what the super legislators will say about our rights in future cases. If this case makes anything clear it is that the bargain that has been offered to religious conservatives, for years now, is a bad one. It’s time to reject it.
The bargain has never been necessarily explicitly articulated but religious conservatives know what it is.
The bargain is that you go along with the party establishment. You support their policies and priorities.
Or, at least keep your mouth shut about it and in return the establishment will put some judges on the bench who supposedly will protect your Constitutional rights to freedom of worship, to freedom of exercise.
What we’ve been told for years now… we’re supposed to shut up while the party establishment focuses more on cutting taxes and handing out favors for multinational corporations who don’t share our values, who will not stand up for American principles, who are only too happy to ship American jobs overseas…
But we’re supposed to say nothing about that. We’re supposed to keep our mouths shut because maybe we’ll get a judge out of the deal.
