Category: Politics, Power, and Governance

WE HAVE NO COMMON COUNTRY ANY LONGER – Clarence Thomas

Justice Clarence Thomas stated that he doesn’t know what Americans can say they have in common as a country.

Host Laura Ingraham asked Thomas, “Are you surprised that — how things are still so rancorous in the United States today about foundational issues? Not about — just foundational issues, the anthem and so forth?”

He answered, “No, I’m not surprised. I mean, what binds us? What do we all have in common anymore? I think we have to think about that. I think this is — when I was a kid, even as we had laws that held us apart, there were things that we held dear and that we all had in common. And I think we have to — we always talk about E pluribus unum. What’s our unum now? We have the pluribus. What’s the unum? And I think it’s a great country. I think we, for whatever reasons, have made it our — some people have decided that the Constitution isn’t worth defending, that history isn’t worth defending, that the culture and principles aren’t worth defending. And, certainly, if you are in my position, they have to be worth defending. That’s what keeps you going. That’s what energizes you. … I don’t know what it is that we have, we can say instinctively, we have as a country in common.”

Asked about by his judicial philosophy, Thomas, widely viewed as a conservative and a strict constructionist, said it is quite simple. “I think it’s ‘Get it right,’” said Thomas. “I think we have to be careful not to take outcomes that we want and backwash that into the process of decision-making. So you don’t reach a decision and then force the process. You use the process … You don’t justify the outcome, you reason to the outcome.”

Thomas said he defends the Constitution.”Some people have decided that the Constitution isn’t worth defending, that history isn’t worth defending,” he said. “Certainly, if you’re in my position, they have to be worth defending.”