From Pine View Farm

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At Psychology Today Blogs, Kenneth Barish argues that “(w)e are motivated in our political opinions first by feelings and secondarily by ideas.” I don’t know that I fully agree with him, but, given the increasingly toxic nature of dis coarse discourse, I think his article is well worth a read. Here’s a tiny bit from it:

A Supreme Court justice is not conservative because he is an “originalist” or a “strict constructionist.” He is an originalist because he is conservative. Antonin Scalia disputed this, even called it a slander, but his argument is unconvincing. Liberal justices are not liberal because they believe in a “living constitution.” They believe in a living constitution because they are liberal. For Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the starting point and core premise of her judicial philosophy was the awareness of injustice. For Scalia, the starting point was what he perceived as moral decadence in society and the need to defend traditional values. This is why Scalia and Ginsburg, friends for decades, continued to disagree.

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