Shortly after the 2008 elections, I posted this article, discussing the predictions that James Dobson had made shortly before the election (and Jim Wallis’ objections to those predictions), about what the outcomes of an Obama administration might be. The predictions came in the form of a “letter from the future.”
If you click the link above and follow the discussion, many of the worst outcomes that Dobson predicted were predicated on the possible retirements of Scalia and Kennedy from the Supreme Court, allowing Obama to appoint two leftist judges to replace one conservative and one moderate, thereby securing a 6-3 leftist majority court that would rubberstamp anything Obama wanted to do, and perhaps discover new “rights” in the Constitution, like same-sex marriage.
Of course, those two judges didn’t retire in Obama’s first time, but they’re getting older, and there is no doubt what kind of judges Obama will replace them with, if they retire during Obama’s second term for health or other reasons. (For this reason, we should all be fervently praying for their health and vigor.)
It strikes me that while premature, Dobson’s predictions may not be far off the mark now…. with the exception of any of them that require a compliant House of Representatives, which I hope Obama does not have (though past weak kneed Republican performances don’t fill me with confidence).
I think it’s not unreasonable to suspect that any of Dobson’s predictions that don’t require action by the House of Representatives are likely to come to pass if Obama does have a chance to pack the court to the left… or even just replace a single conservative or moderate justice with the likes of Kagan or Sotomayor, giving the left a 5-4 majority for a LONG time, in all liklihood. Note that judges appointed by Democrats don’t seem to move to the right…. while the reverse happens too often (Souter).
And regarding Jim Wallis’ objections to Dobson’s predictions (responded to more fully here), what would Wallis’ have said in 2008 at a prediction that Obama’s universal healthcare law would force Christian institutions to pay for abortifacient birth control?
Doubtless he would have called it “hate speech” and “paranoia.”
The reality is quite other, isn’t it?
