The very best. But not Harvard or Yale.
Biden should nominate Judge J. Michelle Childs to the Supreme Court.
Who is she?? She's the one who didn't go to law school at Harvard or Yale.
She went to the University of South Carolina Law School.
A Washington Post columnist, Paul Waldman, wrote about why Democrats risk a major shellacking in 2022. He was addressing the brand image of Democrats. They are the party associated with the triumph of the elites. Democrats aren't really for the little guy, and the public knows it. They are the party of highly-educated experts who tell the little guy how to live.
Democrats will have proven unable to address the fundamental inequities in the American system that contribute to the widely shared — and correct — feeling that our system is rigged in favor of those with wealth and power.
Wealth and power compound through inheritance and privilege passed down to children. Ambitious parents work to get their kids into an Ivy or Stanford or MIT and a few other brand-name schools. It is confirmation of success in the Darwinian struggle for status. Yale or Harvard law schools grease the wheels for the climb up the ladders of power and money. It's not what-you-know, it's who-you-know. From Harvard and Yale law, to a judicial clerkship, to a good law firm, to judgeships on higher and higher courts. We consider people on that track "superbly qualified." At the time of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, all nine Supreme Court justices attended either Harvard or Yale Law Schools.
Biden has an opportunity. Nominate Judge Childs.
Biden needs a win, and better yet, an easy, low-drama win. He needs a public demonstration that everything need not be a 50-50 partisan drag-out struggle. South Carolina congressman James Clyburn likes Judge Childs, which addresses a potential problem on Biden's left. South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham has spoken publicly in favor of her, too. Graham's support would mean there won't be unified GOP obstruction. Graham's support means that Susan Collins's no-vote isn't critical, which frees her to burnish her reputation as a moderate. Biden can get a bipartisan win.
Biden's bigger opportunity is to use this appointment to redefine affirmative action and diversity, by making it not about race but about the narrow-minded elitism of the privileged. He made a necessary campaign decision in promising to nominate a Black female Supreme Court justice. That promise backfires now that he is president. He appeared to undermine the qualifications of his nominee since he pre-judged that he was looking for a Black woman. Race and gender should be incidental in affirmative action. One notices race within the entirety of life experience. Biden's campaign pledge set him up for the criticism we are hearing from Republicans appealing to White grievance. We were excluded! How unfair! How discriminatory! How come everybody's always picking on me?
Biden can change the frame. He can praise Harvard and Yale Law Schools. Sure. Why not? It shows that he isn't acting out of malice. He can--indeed must--praise the potential nominees who have those Ivy League credentials. He put potential nominees like Harvard College-Harvard Law Judge Jackson into the public eye. He must not disrespect them. By acknowledging the elite tracking system he sets it up for his main point. It is too narrow, elitist, and most important, built on a false premise. Biden can tell the simple truth, understood by every sane and honest graduate of Harvard and Yale: There are a great many extraordinarily smart, able people who went to school elsewhere. This includes people who attended community colleges, night schools, public schools, schools no one has heard of, and no school at all. Elite schools have their dummies, too, but his message isn't about their bad apples. His key message is that there are a great many pathways to superb qualification for any job, and Scranton Joe Biden understands that.
Biden could blow this. He must not imply he is accepting second-best to get diversity or that diversity was his goal. That would ruin the message. He must insist he is taking the very, very best, damn it. Diversity is a consequence, not the cause. People will get it. You are nominating a Black, female, graduate of a public university in South Carolina. That is diversity. Take the win.
Joe Biden wants to be seen as the defender of the little guy, the person without all the elite credentials. Good. So defend the little guy lacking all the elite credentials. Say it: The best candidate for the Supreme Court happened to go to law school at the University of South Carolina. It is a good message.