Last Wednesday, the United States
experienced a new type of pick for supreme court, that left everyone staring
into space. Sonia Sotomayor was chosen; but why? Did our president, Barack
Obama, choose her because of her experiences as a judge, or because of her
rase? Was this just to keep minorities happy, or to really make the government
better?
Rase looks like a key factor for Mr.
Obama's pick for Sotomayor. The most probable reason for this is because of the
minorities of Hispanic people living in the United States. These individuals
must have voted for Obama. The problem is that they are not seeing very
positive changes with the Obama administration, and might change their
political views for the next election. President Obama might be trying to
rescue those votes by choosing a Hispanic woman for the supreme court. As it is
seen in the following quote, rase was a very important factor for this
decision. As Sotomayor put it, 'I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the
richness of her experiences would more often than reach a better conclusion [as
a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life.'
Experience and knowledge are usual and
most logical reasons for choosing someone for such an important position. On
abortion, Sotomayor is clearly in favor of anti-abortion over the pro choice,
yet she hasn't talked about it lately, and hasn't make any statements is public
since 2002, when she said, 'The Supreme Court has made it clear that the
government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice
position, and can do so with public funds.' During the 1995 baseball strike,
Sotomayor showed a sense of responsibility. As she put it, 'I as a judge do not
desire ... my intrusion as a player in the collective bargaining process....
The (National Labor Relations) Act, however, does require me to function as its
gatekeeper to ensure that the field ... is pitched properly.'
In conclusion, the probability of
president Obama picking Sotomayor for high court because of rase and
experiences are evenly split. If the reason for picking her was because of
rase, we can assume that the minorities that voted for our president are for
sure very important to him. The fundamental question now is what are we going
to see some years from now? Probably, a diverse government, picked not by
knowledge or experiences, but to keep voters happy, and for reelection. It is
the ultimate way for liberal leaders around the world to get easy votes, to
trick people by making them think that rase is a key factor for leadership,
while it really is knowledge and experience that make great leaders who they
are.