There is a great deal of ruin in a nation

Gathering a real-world reflection of our state of affairs is much more difficult these days given that our corporate mainstream media are so aligned with the State.  It requires more work.  

But it can be interesting as well.  One of the things I have noticed over the past five years is how frequently some story gets presented followed by an entirely predictable arc.  There is the immediate folderol as to the story's accuracy and spin.  Nothing especially surprising there.

What has surprised me is how, a few days or weeks later, someone, usually outside the mainstream media, makes an observation so obvious it is astonishing it hasn't been made before.  Sometimes it sparks a different way of seeing things, sometimes it is just a quirky realization.

For example, it is perhaps a week now since Breyer's intended retirement was leaked by the White House.  There were several days when everyone kicked around nominee lists and sputtered about the ethics of selecting Supreme Court justices based on race and gender.  All worthy points.

However, it was just a day or two ago that someone pointed out that this predetermination by Biden to select a black woman nominee was the result of a strategic deal between the Biden campaign and South Carolina House member James Clyburn during the Democratic primary in 2019 when the Biden campaign was drifting and the Sanders campaign seemed to have the momentum to take the nomination.  

Clyburn is 82 and likely retiring soon.  He extracted the commitment from Biden to appoint a black woman Supreme Court nominee in return for Clyburn's support of the Biden campaign in the South Carolina primary.  Clyburn has a loyal following among among black South Carolinians and indeed they turned out in strength for Biden in the primary, the support needed for Biden to pull off a win.  The campaign pivoted after the South Carolina win, leading to Biden's victory during the general election.

None of this was secret or new news.  It was well known and publicly discussed at the time.

But it took several days to come back into the public dialogue after Breyer's retirement news.  

No matter whether one likes or dislikes political horse-trading, it is real and this was just one of those instances and it was important context not present during the first several days of sloshing ink.

Then yesterday, I saw Neo make note of a pattern I had not paid attention to and which I have seen no one else comment on.  And once you see it, it is obvious.

Biden pledged that his first nominee to SCOTUS would be a black woman. He did exactly the same with his vice president spot, and see how that’s turned out. Kamala Harris’ performance as Veep has been so abysmal that it’s set back the cause of black women, if anything.

Neo goes on to develop an argument that has little to do with the parallel she points out.  

What I am interested is the parallel to the dynamics of the Supreme Court Justice appointment and his selection of his Vice President.  It is not much of a pattern - two data points.  The same issue is at the core of both decisions - to what degree do you choose national positions based on capability and effectiveness and to what degree do you choose based on political expediency.

What is surprising, to me, is that it has taken this long for someone to draw the obvious parallel.  Perhaps they have and I simply missed it but it seems an intriguing enough parallel that it would have been widely noted.  

In both cases, Biden is choosing based on political expediency.  No surprise there since that is what politicians usually do.

As Neo points out, it did not work out for his choice of VP.  It was a poor decision for the Democratic Party, for the Biden administration and for the nation.  My suspicion is that the pool of talented black women lawyers with a track record sufficient to be considered for the Supreme Court is larger than the pool of talented black women with a national track record sufficient to be considered for the VP position.  Which should make Biden's task easier. 

But it is the same dynamic of political horse trading circumscribed with a disavowal to simply find the best.  Adam Smith once said "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation."  It is true.  Great national build capacity to overcome setbacks.

At some point, though, the willful pursuit of the politically expedient rather than the best required does take a toll.