An impossible dream

President Donald Trump is known for being unpredictable, right?   So let's indulge for moment in a dream of what could be if we lived in the spirit of respect, compromise, and doing what's best for our nation and its people.

It would certainly be unpredictable for him to do something like that, so I'm not holding my breath but, rather, taking a breather from all the chaos and rage -- and indulging in a dream of what could be, if he surprised us in a good way.

I'm referring, of course, to Trump's selection of a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.    Remember, when Justice Scalia died, President Obama did exactly that.   He chose a judge whose decisions reflected a spirit of moderation, respect for law, willingness to compromise -- and certainly what would be best for us all at that particular time.

Before Scalia's sudden death, we had essentially the same situation we have now:   four conservative judges, four liberal judges, and one judge who most often provided the swing vote (although he did not like that title) -- so that he, Justice Anthony Kennedy, more often than any other, cast the vote that created the majority in a five to four split.

I'm not saying that Obama's choice was a strict originalist, like Scalia.  He was a moderate liberal.  But rather than grab an opportunity to shove the court further leftward with an idealogue, in choosing Merrick Garland, Obama chose respect for the Constitution, the settled law, and the spirit of compromise.   And he showed deference to the realities of the political moment.

We all know how the Republicans rewarded that extended hand of compromise from President Obama -- they slapped it away, and Mitch McConnell declared his newly created dictum:  no Supreme Court appointments during the last year of a president's time in office.   "Let the people decide" through their voice at the ballot box.    McConnell refused even to allow any hearings on Garland's suitability.

At the time, everyone, including most Republicans, expected Hillary Clinton to win.   No doubt she would either renew Garland's nomination or else pick someone she preferred, probably someone more liberal.

But Trump won and promptly turned to a list provided for him by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society -- and we got Neil Gorsuch, who is proving to be a solid, very conservative justice, with growing influence on the court.

It's true, Obama used his first two appointments to put young, liberal women on the court:   Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.  But at a point of division and controversy, his third appointment was an olive branch.

Trump has made one appointment, as conservative as Obama's first two picks are liberal.   And we are at a point about ten times as divisive and dangerous as we were when Obama extended his olive branch with his choice of the moderate Judge Garland.

So isn't it time for President Trump to put on his big boy pants, stand up and be a man -- and realize that there is more to the job of being president than just "winning"?    What the country needs right now could be provided in an instant, if Trump extended the same olive branch.

He could do that by re-nominating Judge Merrick Garland.

Please don't laugh me out of the room.   I did title this:   "An impossible dream."  But it's only impossible because Trump's instincts are not to surprise people with good or noble deeds.    And he is about to go meet with his friend -- or Master ?? --  Vladimir;   and Mueller is breathing down his neck.

But we can still dream . . . .    or have we lost that too?

Ralph