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WireTap Blog: Racial Justice

Sotomayor and Racial Lines of Attack

Posted by Adam Waxman at 7:00PM

One thing I did not report on this week were the hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. I didn’t report on the hearings because honestly, very little happened that I felt was of value or interesting. It’s pretty clear to me that she will be confirmed. If you are interested in following the confirmation process, I recommend my colleague Adam Serwer of The American Prospect’s coverage, which has been quite good. He also has been twittering live coverage of the hearings, so you can check that out for his blow by blow analysis. Now, there was some interesting political stuff that happened, stuff that I think points to an ominous future for the GOP. I want to take a minute to analyze how the hearings might impact youth politics.

It will probably come as no surprise to you that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee worked hard to attack Sotomayor using race as a pretext. Consider, for example, this statement from ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) regarding a specific decision that Sotomayor recently made:

You voted not to reconsider the prior case. You voted to stay with the decision of the circuit. And in fact your vote was the key vote. Had you voted with Judge Cabranes, himself of Puerto Rican ancestry, had you voted with him, you could’ve changed that case.

Sessions seems to be implying here that all Puerto Ricans should think the same about legal issues. Bizarre. And we’ve seen other commentary of this type from both elected Republican officials and even more so from rightwing blowhards like Glenn Beck and Pat Buchanan. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Republicans think opening race based attacks is going to get them anywhere politically. I mean, sure, emphasizing white privilege might help Republicans in a few places (or for a few cycles) but eventually demographics are going to catch up with Republicans and they are going to be screwed. Young people today are not only more diverse than any American generation, they are also more tolerant than previous generations. Young people are going to remember the Sotomayor nomination, and if they’re smart, Democrats will emphasize how race played an ugly role, a role cast by the Republican right.