Discussion: California Supreme Court Chief Justice Left GOP After Kavanaugh Hearings

[rollinnolan]

As with many, it doesn’t happen until it starts to affect them.trump’s open and flagrant racism, the fact that his administration has gone after ALL immigrants who aren’t white are two examples of something that affects HER personally.

Bingo. The Asian-American voter can see the writing on the wall. Good to know they are acting/voting accordingly.

[sparrowhawk]

“. . . conservative on some issues, but open-minded on social justice issues” hasn’t described the Republican party at least since Reagan. What took her this long?

Inertia and Identity. She’s been a Republican since she was 18 (according to the article), so she has identified as a Republican during all that time. To renege on that identity probably feels like being duped by the party and people in general tend to resist accepting that that they screwed up/made a mistake.

It’s more palatable if they can point to reasons that the party left them and make them feel better about severing those ties. It’s the same reason people often delude themselves into staying in an abusive relationship. If they accept the situation is FUBAR, they might feel like they should take some of the blame for being a part of it.

Trump and Kavanaugh offer a visceral representation of some of the most egregious aspects of the Party’s rotten core, so she can point to them and say, “It’s not me, it’s you,” and still hold onto that identity she’s built for herself. If that’s what it takes for her, I’m not willing to hold it against her now that she’s made it there. More need to follow to finish off the GOP once and for all.

[drriddle]

That’s a good point…it really is like an abusive relationship, where the Republican party promises to do better, does a few things to make it seem that way, but really isn’t improving if you look behind the curtain. Trump ripped the cover off of the party and made it clear that the base of the party really is a bunch of racists who want to control the nation by whatever means. Republicans are having to choose, and it’s a hard thing to change what you have identified as your entire life…some would rather just mouth the words and hope it all goes away instead of holding onto their beliefs and leaving the party. The peer pressure is keeping people in the party in rural and conservative areas, but in places like CA we’re seeing the Republican party fold and more independents…once people take the first step hopefully they will finally realize how loathsome the Republicans had become and, at the very least, start to vote for equality and basic humanity. It won’t be a fast process, even if Trump crashes it will take a while for enough Republicans to pull away for the party not to have any power (or to be taken over by rational people).

[dominic]

There is something mentally very wrong with anyone who identifies as Republican – or Republican-leaning.

Judges of all people have no business being Republican.

She did the right thing. But why was she even there in the first place?

[misha]

That’s a good point…it really is like an abusive relationship, where the Republican party promises to do better, does a few things to make it seem that way, but really isn’t improving if you look behind the curtain.

How on earth does this explain Log Cabin Republicans? The party has done s**t for the lgbtq community.

[susanintheoc]

I read that the administration wants to send back to Vietnam the refugees who came here after the end of the war in Vietnam Nam. There is some agreement that the US entered into with the Vietnamese to allow them to stay. Does anyone know more about this? I was out of town and am behind n the news. Thanks

[fiftygigs]

that didn’t seem to fit me

The loss of values?
The indifference to attack?
Doing business with Saudis?
Doing business with Russians?
Situational jurisprudence?
Gouging the treasury?
Privilege?

[serendipitoussomnambulist]

It is not the Party that is the root of the problem. It is the intellectually empty, morally bankrupt conservative ideology and that drives the actions, behaviors of conservatives. The Republican party is a mirror of the vile medieval and retrograde ideology.

[midnight_rambler]

The Kavanaugh hearing finally changed her mind. Not the rampant racism? Not the homophobia? Not all of the un-American voter suppression measures? The war profiteering never bothered her? She was cool with torture?

Look, it’s a big-tent party.

[midnight_rambler]

What they’re trying to do is to make Vietnamese refugees subject to regular immigration rules (not just to mass deport all of them). Currently they’re not subject to deportation even if convicted of a crime or because they came illegally, due to an agreement between the US and Vietnam (which doesn’t want them back, considering people who fled subversives).

As someone said, this is of a piece with the whole Trump administration immigration policy. It’s not about actually deporting more people - they’re actually deporting fewer than under Obama - but making more people deportable (by expanding the groups targeted, arresting people at schools and courthouses, deporting for petty crimes, etc.) thereby instilling fear in immigrant communities, making them feel like this isn’t their home and they should go back to their original country.

[drjekyll]

Cantil-Sakauye is up for a retention vote in 2020. As a Republican Chief Justice in CA she would be an obvious target for a ‘No’ campaign. This was a political positioning move.

[susanintheoc]

Thanks for the info.

[haddockbranzini]

They’d probably rather find a way to end women’s suffrage.

And they’d still get plenty of GOP women voting for them.

[jacksonhts]

Thank you. That flip, cynical comment, responding to a heartfelt and complex statement, accompanied in the article by the woman’s life history, was, of course, the first and fastest comment posted on the thread.

[docb]

It is the Repub women who step forward out of conscience and the men who change their standard to fit the thugs they elect…

Thank you Judge for going on record.

[ohcomeonnow]

“It is about what are we going to do about homelessness, what are we going to do about climate, what are we going to do about guns,” she said.

FOX: Why was she a Republican? Good Riddance.
Trump: She is illegal. Sessions must deport her and her family.

[jimtoday]

She said she made the decision to shed her party label in consultation with her husband and a few friends and described the process as “humbling, tough, emotional.”

She said she made the decision to shed her party label in consultation with her husband and a few friends and described the process as “a smart move to save my own hide from the obvious direction the wind is blowing in California, if I hope to further my own career!"

[littlegirlblue]

It must be very difficult for someone to break away like this, it’s probably close to leaving a marriage. But ultimately it’s a sad commentary on the state of the republican party not just here in CA where they are in complete shambles but on the state of the party on the whole.

[gregor]

The overwhelming question is this: why it took her so long. Trumpism is not an entirely novel version of post Eisenhower Republicanism. The difference is just a matter of degree.

[drriddle]

The same question is asked of abused wives after they finally move out after years of putting up with it…and it’s always a bad question. Better to celebrate someone finally moving into a better position than criticizing them for not realizing they should have done so a long time ago.