The U.S. Supreme Court must preserve the union and all it was founded to stand for. That means the party in power has an obligation to appoint and confirm justices without delay. Voters elected President Donald Trump and a majority of senators in large part out of concern for the court.
The United States is the world's force for civility. This country opposes the oppression of LGBTQIA individuals whom foreign governments stone, behead, imprison, or otherwise torture in barbaric countries around the globe.
This country ended slavery in less than a century. It continues large-scale in China, Libya, Nigeria and other regions.
The United States has welcomed more foreign immigrants than any other country in the world. Despite domestic self-loathing by leftwing anarchists, our country serves as a beacon of hope for humanity's most poor and oppressed.
The United States becomes a brighter beacon each year -- and has since the nation's founding in 1776 -- because it enforces and builds on constitutional principles that hold the individual above all else. Only because we uphold the Constitution do most in this country -- citizen or visitor -- live free from mob rule and oppression based on gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, creed or other personal traits.
The country's principles are so moral and just the internal enemies of freedom and justice stoop to rewriting history to invent an uglier narrative. The left-wing New York Times published a tome that pretends the United States was founded by the arrival of a slave ship in 1619. With this revisionist claptrap, left-wing journalists, educators and run-of-the-mill bullies avoid the inconvenient truth of 750,000 Americans giving their lives in a civil war that ended domestic slavery.
Defending our country's Constitution, to protect the world's island of hope, requires a U.S. Supreme Court able and willing to enforce the original intent of the Constitution as lawfully amended.
No president or senator has a role more important than determining who sits on the court after a jurist retires or dies in service.
When one party controls the White House and another the Senate, confirmation can be messy and slow. The president has an obligation to appoint a judge he or she considers best for the country. The opposing party -- if it disagrees with the nomination -- has an obligation to oppose confirmation until given a more suitable prospect.
When the Senate's majority and the president agree on a nominee, the process should be swift. It is not about fairness to the minority party. It is a classic exercise in the power of majority status.
"I have and will continue to support judicial nominees who will protect our Constitution, not legislate from the bench, and uphold the law," said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. "Should a qualified nominee who meets this criteria be put forward, I will vote to confirm." It might or might not hurt Gardner's reelec
It might or might not hurt Gardner's reelection prospects, but he is right to dismiss that consideration. Confirming a judge he trusts to preserve this country's values outweighs political concerns.
With control of the White House and the Senate, Republicans should drop everything and get this seat filled in record time. They must, for the sake of this country and a world that needs a shining city on the hill.