I try to avoid talk of politics here (I debate up a storm privately, but don’t want this to be the forum for it), but as a history geek, and I would argue responsible citizen, I couldn’t hold back on this.

Some people apparently need to take a step back and grasp a more rational understanding of history – Joe Stalin is NOT the guy the be quoting on how to solve your concerns about the actions of Supreme Court justices. The man exterminated a huge swath of his own countrymen in pursuit of unobstructued power. He dealt with people who held differing opinions by simply making them disappear.

I don’t care what your beef is with the process or the people involved, to use Joseph Stalin as a model, even in the abstract, is obscene and irresponsible.

We need to tone down the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle before we step into the abyss. There is a reason the Constitution has worked so well (imperfectly, but better than the alternatives) for the past 200+ years: checks on the power of any one group. Raging debates result, gridlock happens, and extremism is tempered. Somehow we muddle through with compromises that are grudgingly acceptable to the majority in the middle. It ain’t pretty, and those with hard core ideals very seldom get their way, but it largely works.

Don’t mess with it.

To those advocating radical changes to the system: Some day, next year or 20 years down the road, you won’t be in power (hard as it must be to believe now), and you will cherish those checks and balances.