What kudos does Chief Justice Roberts deserve for ignoring 80+% of the constitutional law expert consensus that the Commerce Clause was sufficient justification for the mandate? And where is the condemnation of Clarence Thomas' scandalous in-your-face refusal to recuse himself when is wife is a paid activist regarding the case he is trying? If he were a black liberal the impeachment would be under way already.
Op-Ed Columnist
Taking One for the Country
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: June 30, 2012 350 Comments
IN my mind, there are two lessons from the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision to support President Obama’s health care plan: 1) how starved the country is for leadership that puts the nation’s interest before partisan politics, which is exactly what Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. did; and 2) the virtue of audacity in politics and thinking big. Let’s look at both.
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Read All Comments (350) »
It was not surprising to hear liberals extolling the legal creativity and courage of Chief Justice Roberts in finding a way to greenlight Obama’s Affordable Care Act. But there is something deeper reflected in that praise, and it even touched some conservatives. It’s the feeling that it has been so long since a national leader “surprised” us. It’s the feeling that it has been so long since a national leader ripped up the polls and not only acted out of political character but did so truly for the good of the country — as Chief Justice Roberts seemingly did.
I know that this was a complex legal decision. But I think it was inspired by a simple noble leadership impulse at a critical juncture in our history — to preserve the legitimacy and integrity of the Supreme Court as being above politics. We can’t always describe this kind of leadership, but we know it when we see it and so many Americans appreciate it.
This is still a moderate, center-left/center-right country, and all you have to do is get out of Washington to discover how many people hunger for leaders who will take a risk, put the country’s interests before party and come together for rational compromises. Why do we all jump up and applaud at N.B.A. or N.F.L. games when they introduce wounded Iraq or Afghan war veterans in the stands? It’s because the U.S. military embodies everything we find missing today in our hyperpartisan public life. The military has become, as the Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel once put it, “the last repository of civic idealism and sacrifice for the sake of the common good.”
Indeed, I found myself applauding for Chief Justice Roberts the same way I did for Al Gore when he gracefully bowed to the will of the Supreme Court in the 2000 election and the same way I do for those wounded warriors — and for the same reason: They each, in their own way, took one for the country.
To put it another way, Roberts undertook an act of statesmanship for the national good by being willing to anger his own “constituency” on a very big question. But he also did what judges should do: leave the big political questions to the politicians. The equivalent act of statesmanship on the part of our politicians now would be doing what Roberts deferred to them as their responsibility: decide the big, hard questions, with compromises, for the national good. Otherwise, we’re doomed to a tug of war on the deck of the Titanic, no matter what health care plan we have.
I see no sign of Mitt Romney being ready for such a “Roberts moment.” I still have hope for Obama. He’s entitled to a victory lap for daring to go big — ignoring his advisers — to bring health care to the whole country. It’s a huge achievement.
Comments Closed
Kevin Rothstein
New York
Verified
Mr. Friedman: there is no equivalence between President Obama and the Republicans when it comes to leadership, intelligence, empathy, maturity, and the willingness to compromise. Of course, the president is not perfect; nobody is. However, your disturbing, and some may say annoying, tendency to repeat the same argument virtually every week ensures that millions of your readers are being led to believe a falsehood. All one has to do, especially in the technological age of today, is research every lie, insult, exaggeration, and downright crazy thing the Republicans have done and said about the president since January 20, 2009, to understand what I am saying. Please stop the false equivalence. I can't comprehend why this newspaper allows you to get away with such journalistic smoke and mirrors.
June 30, 2012 at 4:46 p.m.
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Janet
Salt Lake City, Utah
Verified
Mr. Friedman, I think Prof. Krugman was referring to you when he wrote on his blog:
"By now, the centrist dodge ought to be familiar. A Very Serious, chin-stroking pundit argues that what we really need is a political leader willing to concede that while the economy needs short-run stimulus, we also need to address long-term deficits, and that addressing those long-term deficits will require both spending cuts and revenue increases. And then the pundit asserts that both parties are to blame for the absence of such leaders. What he absolutely won’t do is endanger his centrist credentials by admitting that the position he’s just outlined is exactly, exactly, the position of Barack Obama."
You complain about the lack of leadership, but the fault is in yourself. We have a leader. You need to start listening to him.
June 30, 2012 at 9:37 p.m.
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Karen Garcia
New Paltz, NY
Verified
Is there a Centrist Cult deprogrammer in the house to perform an emergency intervention?
While it may be intellectually amusing to elevate Chief Justice Roberts to a pedestal he probably does not deserve, given his court's inexcusable Citizens United ruling, I somehow doubt that altruism was at the heart of his supposed about-face on health care. He's got decades to go before he sleeps, and I am sure he watches TV and reads newspapers and has an inkling of how utterly despised the third branch of government has become. Plus, ruling in favor of the ACA is a huge bonanza to the for-profit health insurance industry, which will suck in an estimated 30 million new customers thanks to an idea conceived by a conservative think tank, adopted by a Republican governor (Romney), and eagerly embraced by a cabal of corporate Democrats.
If your idea of a grand renewal, Mr. Friedman, includes polluting the water and raping the earth through fracking, advances in robotics (Predator drones?), cyber-gadgets in colleges to replace human instruction and critical thinking, and cloud computing as a magical gateway to prosperity and innovation, then I'm afraid somebody's fevered centrist imagination is also right up there in the clouds. Dark storm clouds. Clouds that are full of hot air.
http://kmgarcia2000.blogspot.com/
June 30, 2012 at 5:19 p.m.
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Mark Thomason
Clawson, MI
Verified
"how starved the country is for leadership that puts the nation’s interest before partisan politics"
How very tired the country is of Republicans behaving badly.
June 30, 2012 at 10:13 p.m.
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Lizzie8484
NYC
You write: "It’s the feeling that it has been so long since a national leader “surprised” us. It’s the feeling that it has been so long since a national leader ripped up the polls and not only acted out of political character but did so truly for the good of the country — as Chief Justice Roberts seemingly did."
But, no, actually, what's surprising is that a Republican did it. President Obama has done it repeatedly, including in the health care act. He was advised, you may recall, to have it just help women and children, but he refused, because he knew the people who would never be helped were men of color. True, he did not go for a public option, but he went for what he could get, and he knew it might make him a one-term president. He also, you may recall, Mr. Friedman, came out for gay marriage not too long ago, which was, a trillion people said, a politically risky thing to do.
It's the Republicans who refuse to do what's right for the country again and again and again and again. Justice Roberts doing what he did will be the first and last such act for quite some time, you can be sure of that.
July 1, 2012 at 5:32 a.m.
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Phyl
Brooklyn
NYT Pick
You are praising someone with a lifetime appointment and virtually nothing to lose, for refraining from destroying people's right to healthcare. You compare him to war heroes who risk their lives? You compare him favorably to the president who stuck his neck out to pass the legislation Roberts more or less let stand? (Millions of people will lose out on Medicaid benefits through his ruling--the most vulnerable will be harmed.) After Roberts led the charge to let the rich practically buy elections with unlimited campaign contributions you laud him?
Roberts acted prudently and protected the court's waning prestige. That's good as far as it goes. It is not remotely heroic.
July 1, 2012 at 5:31 a.m.
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francine
massachusetts
Making a good decision that surprised the pundits does not exactly qualify CJ Roberts as a Profile in Courage. It certainly doesn't mitigate some of his lesser decisions.
And I think you're selling President Obama short. In a 24/7 job, it isn't possible for everything to be big and earth shattering but it is necessary to keep moving the ball up the field. In the political world, small steps in the right direction count - even if you don't find them impressive. ACA, Consumer Protection Bureau, ending DADT, auto industry bail out, going after bin Laden and other actions were the right thing to do.
Obama deserves more than a victory lap; he deserves a second term to finish his work. With any luck, he'll get more Democrats in congress to help him move the country forward.
July 1, 2012 at 5:32 a.m.
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RS
U.K.
Why do you assume that universal coverage and the individual mandate would necessarily be antithetical to John Roberts's politics?
Let's remember that having an individual mandate is actually a conservative idea, and its roots go back to the Heritage Foundation and other conservative think tanks.
It's only now - in the crazy upside down world of 2012 - that Republicans oppose it, simply because it was introduced by Barack Obama.
July 1, 2012 at 5:32 a.m.
Recommended107
MS
NY
NYT Pick
We should all be thanking Justice Scalia, not Justice Roberts for the the 5-4 decision that upheld the constitutionality of the ACA. What could John Roberts do other than side with the Democrats after Scalia's diatribe against President Obama in his dissent on the Court's take down of Arizona's Immigration Law one week earlier. Scalia exposed the underbelly of the conservative majority, their embrace of the ideology of the lunatic fringe of the GOP and their complete contempt and hatred for the president with his unjudicial and unhinged screed. Justice Roberts acted to preserve the credibility of the Supreme Court which is sinking in the eyes of the public. That was the right thing to do but his actions weren't motivated by anything but stopping the Court's slide. Read the complete decision, Mr. Friedman. It is not the coherent, concise and exacting type of work the chief justice is known for. It reads as though he was siding with the conservatives, then changed his mind.
As far as "statesmanlike leadership" is concerned, that belongs to the man who stuck his neck out to give us the chance for universal health care against the advice of all his political advisors because "it was the right thing to do."
July 1, 2012 at 4:47 a.m.
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The Wifely Person
St. Paul, MN
NYT Pick
Hello? Am I missing some covert action here? What exactly did Justice Roberts do to garner all this praise?
As you wrote, Mr. Friedman, "To put it another way, Roberts undertook an act of statesmanship for the national good by being willing to anger his own “constituency” on a very big question. But he also did what judges should do: leave the big political questions to the politicians."
That's hardly statesmanship; he did nothing more than his job the way his job was designed to be done. In fact, he left the door _wide open_ for the HCA to be challenged in Congress, and it probably will be.
I would only urge the Congresspeople who want to revisit the HCA with the intent to overturn provide the American people with a firm sign of their distaste for subsidized medicine by waiving their right to use the Congressional health insurance plan; they must show us their receipts for plans they have purchased as regular individuals from insurance companies, along with their certificates of eligibility.
Wouldn't that be fair?
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
July 1, 2012 at 4:41 a.m.
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craig geary
redlands, FL
NYT Pick
"Black Man Gets the Worst Job in America", the Onion.
The year before the president took office $13 Trillion of American wealth evaporated. There were two ridiculous unfunded wars and draining occupations going on.
He has saved the economy, got bin Laden, ended Iraq, is ending Aghanistan and passed healthcare reform.
You may call this small ball.
This VietNam veteran is proud of our President. He is a class act, a self made man. Many times the only adult in the room.
He has accomplished more, for the betterment of the country and our people, and the world than all twenty of the miserable, bankrupting, criminal years known as ReaganBushBush.
July 1, 2012 at 8:52 a.m.
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