The periodic “speculation” about a retirement of some Supreme Court Justice during the Bush Administration is amusing to me. From where I sit, it’s impossible to imagine that Bush will not get to appoint a Justice to the Court.

And there’s nothing atypical about the approach, either.

“This White House — I congratulate it on its ability to be secret,” McGinnis said. “It’s entirely possible that Rehnquist has already communicated his intention to step down and the White House has a plan absolutely set.” — “Bush’s Supreme Court Short List” (May 29, 2005) CBS News Online.

One reason the Bush Administration has gotten away with so much over the last several years is that the majority of Americans really don’t have a clue what the Administration has done. It’s not like anyone walks down the streets trumpeting the ways in which they’re incessantly chipping away at the Constitution. Few people understand that, from a constitutional perspective, the United States of America in 2005 is nothing like the United States of America in 2000. The kinds of things that are now commonplace would have been literally impossible before Bush took office.

“On every occasion the president has chosen confrontation rather than consultation and consensus so we assume it’s going to be confrontation one more time — or four more times, depending on what happens,” said Ralph Neas, director of the People for the American Way. — “Bush’s Supreme Court Short List” (May 29, 2005) CBS News Online.

For perhaps the first time in American history, we have a President in the Whitehouse so secretive that the only thing he does openly is ignore input from institutions set up to represent the will of the People.

But that’s not all that’s changed. Consider the very next sentence after the one just quoted above:

The liberal group has worked to block several of President Bush’s appointments to the courts. — “Bush’s Supreme Court Short List” (May 29, 2005) CBS News Online.

That line did not come from an op-ed. Nevertheless, clearly, it’s not a reporting of the news; it’s an opinion, and a loaded one, at that. Furthermore, there’s no way to interpret that phrase as friendly to liberals. It’s possible to give it a reading that’s not unfriendly to liberals. The fact remains, however, that it’s an opinion, reported as news.

In spite of this, you still hear — even from otherwise intelligent people — about the so-called “liberal press” that is undermining the American way of life.

“In the old days,” these things just didn’t happen very often anywhere except on the pages of the National Enquirer, or emanating from the mouths of neo-conservative talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh and, more recently, Bill O’Reilly. No serious news reporter would ever consider such a thing.

And, of course, this Administration is the first to bring us widespread purchasing of news people and organizations expressly hired for the job of convincing the American public to go along with the President’s plans, however harmful they may ultimately be to the average American.

The interaction of the above forces makes today’s world radically different and they have dramatically shifted the ground under America to create the kind of instability formerly only known to Californians living along the San Andreas fault.

With just over three years left and the inevitability that one or more Supreme Court Justices will retire (or die in their chairs) — Justices who, not incidentally, shape American life for decades longer than a “mere” President — we can only ask what perils await.

Remember, it doesn’t take much more than five minutes for you to contact your representative today and let them know what you think. Your future, the future of your children and the future of America depend upon your voice being heard.