Words Without Meaning

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/us/politics/sonia-sotomayor-supreme-court.html

("Justice Sotomayor Describes Frustration with Being a Liberal on the Supreme Court")

Liberal, conservative. These are antiseptic terms, neutral in tone and giving freedom to the mind to consider each with equal solemnity. As if the scales of justice give no favor for one flavor over its counterpart. Therein lies the rub.

Because with the power of words we do have the ability to distinguish, the capacity to assert difference in degree, the authority to treat those that deserve opprobrium in a far harsher light than others who are worthy of much kinder contemplation.

So please let us not refer to Justice Alito and Justice Sotomayor with language that does not convey the depth of our distrust and dismay for one end of the philosophical spectrum in stark contrast to our admiration and gratitude for a person who would weep at the magnitude of the injustices being shoved down our throats by those presently controlling the levers.

Liberal and conservative, concepts giving implicit sanction to the idea of each having strayed from a center, each having deviated from core principles. Allowing little room for the mind to comprehend the vast chasm that separates right from wrong, truth from fiction, hate from love, prejudice from compassion.

I would rather we discard these labels as useless, and even worse than that, wholly deceptive.  And if we must provide one phrase that is intended to encapsulate the essence of each side of this equation that we do so without the stain of moral equivalency that has no legitimate place in our discourse. I assure you it will not damage our soul to be pejorative in reflections of those who are deserving of no better.

Our nation is teetering on the brink, staring into the abyss and it mandates, it requires the words we speak to reflect the gravity of the moment. To do anything less is to abandon our station in a time of often terrible and terrifying crisis.