If you're here, you already love Justice Clarence Thomas for being a reliable defender of the Constitution. You've probably wished that we could clone him so that he could be on all nine seats of the Supreme Court. He never seems to disappoint. And during a speech on Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, he definitely did not disappoint.
Thomas took the stage and went straight for the jugular of “progressivism,” framing it not as a policy disagreement but as a direct assault on the republic's foundation. "Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government," he said.
Thomas argued that a spirit of "cynicism, rejection, hostility and animus" toward America — from Americans themselves — has taken root across the country. The values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence have "fallen out of favor," he said, and he laid the blame squarely at the feet of intellectuals and the nation's colleges and universities.
Anyone who has watched what passes for higher education in recent decades will find that assessment difficult to argue with.
At the heart of his critique was a simple but devastating contrast. The Declaration holds that rights come from God, that they are unalienable, and that government exists to protect them. So-called “progressivism” inverts that entirely. "It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government," Thomas said. "It requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights."
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Thomas also took aim at the Washington establishment — the comfortable class of officials who have learned to dress up their failures in respectable language. He accused D.C. of being overrun by people with no real commitment to righteous cause, traditional morality, national defense, free enterprise, religious piety, or the original meaning of the Constitution. "They recast themselves as Institutionalists, pragmatists or thoughtful moderates," he said, "all as a way of justifying their failures to themselves, their consciences, and their country." If that doesn't describe the last several decades of Beltway careerism, nothing does.
Thomas avoided naming specific politicians or referencing current events. He didn't need to. The indictment was broad, clear, and landed with full force in a country that knows exactly who fits the description.
Thomas didn't just diagnose the problem; he demanded something from the audience and from the country at large. He called on Americans to make personal sacrifices to defend the founding principles that too many have taken for granted. "In my view, we must find in ourselves that same level of courage that the signers of the Declaration have so that we can do for our future what they did for theirs," Thomas said.
President George H.W. Bush appointed Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991, and he has always been a reliable voice in defending the Constitution. Unfortunately, he will inevitably have to retire from the court. Wednesday’s speech was a reminder of exactly why he's irreplaceable.
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