Watching the Judiciary, For All the Wrong Reasons

IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR with an organization called "Judicial Watch", you probably should be, for your own safety, rather like one should be aware of an approaching hurricane, or an impending alt right white supremacist rally at a location near you. Being forewarned is a great survival expedient, which is one reason why we have eyes, ears, a nose, and precognition. Watching the judiciary, being aware of its behavior, is among the noblest of causes. Like Jefferson said: "If the people become inattentive to the affairs of government, the legislators and magistrates shall divide society into two classes: wolves, and sheep". Arguably, this has long since happened, and its far too late to change it. There can be little dispute that the American people long ago became inattentive to the affairs of government, or that American society is divided into two classes, the rich and the poor, the middle class having vanished before our very eyes. The question arises: What other purpose can there be for citizen vigilance other than to guard against encroaching government tyranny, or abuse of power? None, one might think. That's where Judicial Watch goes off track; early and often. Their purpose in watching the judiciary has nothing to do with Jeffersonian vigilance, and everything to do with base party politics, and political ideology, motives which to Jefferson and all the other founders would surely seem repugnant, if not traitorous. Jefferson, like all the founders, did not like political parties organized around ideology, considered them a threat to democracy, and would think that any organized group seeking to mold the nation's judicial system based upon ideology to be a great threat to justice itself. Judicial watch wants to stock the judiciary, nationwide, with conservative magistrates, and wants to ensure that decisions rendered from the Supreme Court down reflect conservative values. That is the sole reason for the organization's existence. To them, it is a noble cause, above reproach, for which they incessantly seek monetary contributions from anyone with a checkbook. That, and dredging up the long defunct Hillary Clinton email controversy, which they helped create, in order to put her in jail. No, our conservative colleagues have not given up the ghost on Hillary, even though she has long since faded from the electoral office political scene, and receded into the background, irrelevant to the future. The fools would be humorous, were they not in such deadly earnest, to borrow a quote. Anything to distract attention from Donald Trump, his abuses of power, and the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the conservative political movement in general. Get conservatives on the bench, and destroy Hillary, that's it, that's their raison d etre. Nothing could be more debauched. No judge should ever be placed on the bench of any court based on his or her ideology, politically. the qualifications should be education, intelligence, integrity, experience, and the demonstrated ability to make wise decisions and render justice fairly, and dispassionately. Liberalism and conservatism should have absolutely nothing to do with it, but in our corrupt culture, political ideology has everything to do with it, among conservatives, even to the point of refusing to perform the constitution function of giving advice and consent for Supreme Court nominees; merely because he isn't sufficiently conservative, as in the case of Merrick Garland. Even more heinous is that the Judicial Watch group, staffed ostensibly by people of erudition, fail to see this, or pretend that they don't see it, or do see it, and simply don't care.