And the nomination goes to...

The nomination is in: Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court justice.

By all accounts, he is the perfect choice for the court. He has - and more importantly, has shown throughout his career - a commitment to interpreting the law as written, rather than trying to legislate from the bench as more "activist" judges have done. Yet he is known to have an open mind, a desire to know and understand all sides of an argument, valuing the input of diverse opinions. He's fairly young, and (Lord willing) will lend a consistent, conservative voice to the court for years to come.

Within minutes of the announcement, protest crowds outside were shouting their displeasure. I swear, they must have had a meeting earlier in the day to make up chants for all the potential nominees, so they would be ready the instant the nomination was made.

Then there are the dingbats who have their undies in a bundle over the imminent overturn of Roe v. Wade. Their dingbatted-ness is proved by the fact that they believe the SCOTUS has the power to just vote and overturn the decision. Last I checked, the court hears and decides on cases; it could be decades, if ever, that a case with particular set of facts needed to force the court to reconsider Roe v. Wade makes its way to the Supreme Court - and even then, the court has to decide to hear it.

I held my nose and voted for Trump, not because I actually liked or supported the man, but because the alternative was a proven disaster. I still don't care for him as a person, but I am impressed with a lot of what he has managed to accomplish thus far. This nomination, I think, isn't so much about a desire to push a Conservative agenda with a capital "C", but a desire for small-"c" conservatism.

The challenge these days is to not get too wound up over the dingbats and their shouting, to look past it to see what is actually happening. If nothing else, the current climate is a primer on the utter failure of modern civics and government education in our schools.