Badgered into Submission

I
n the political realm, power is roughly divided between Democrats and Republicans in the United States. But the cultural realm — mainstream media, the entertainment industry, and higher education — tilts dramatically left. And the latter is likely to be far more determinative of the environment in which Orthodox parents raise their children, as Stephen Prothero documents in Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections).

That pattern applies even as the left grows ever more unmoored from reality and hoisted on the petard of its own internal contradictions.

As Exhibit One, I offer the confirmation hearings of Neomi Rao to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most powerful Court of Appeals in the nation. Despite being a woman of color (her parents are immigrants from India) and possessor of impeccable legal credentials — Supreme Court clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law Center, and director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under President Trump — not a single Democrat voted to confirm Rao.

Historically, Democrats have fought fiercely against the confirmation to the Court of Appeals of conservatives who belong to racial or ethnic minorities, especially if they are considered likely candidates to be nominated to the Supreme Court in the future, as Rao is. Democrats, for instance, filibustered Honduran-born Miguel Estrada’s nomination by President George W. Bush to the D.C. Circuit for two years between 2001 and 2003, and never allowed it to come up for a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Had he been confirmed, Estrada would have been the first Latino on the D.C. Circuit, and at age 42, a potential future nominee for the Supreme Court.