Obama said he's going to choose a judge who has empathy.
Republicans are "worried," much as they always are, that Obama is going to choose an "activist" judge.
Republicans think "empathy" is code for someone who isn't going to follow the law.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah says Obama's comment last week about naming a justice who understands Americans' problems and has empathy for people is "code" for putting in place a person who legislates from the bench. BGEmpathy means empathy, understanding the feelings of another, walking in someone else's shoes, feeling for people who are more vulnerable. For a good example of how empathy might affect a judge's decision, read this. It does NOT mean making decisions based on emotions. A judge with empathy might have a bigger and more diverse life experience. I know this is a novel concept for republicans, whose lack of empathy is one of the primary reasons for its shrinking party.
But Obama's been talking about empathy since way back when. Here's what he said about empathy in a speech: The Great Need of the Hour in Atlanta, GA January 20, 2008
Unity is the great need of the hour -- the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it's the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.
I'm not talking about a budget deficit. I'm not talking about a trade deficit. I'm not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.
I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.
We have an empathy deficit when we're still sending our children down corridors of shame -- schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.
We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can't afford a doctor when their children get sick.
We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.
We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged.
And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own.
So we have a deficit to close. We have walls -- barriers to justice and equality -- that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour.
Unfortunately, all too often when we talk about unity in this country, we've come to believe that it can be purchased on the cheap. We've come to believe that racial reconciliation can come easily -- that it's just a matter of a few ignorant people trapped in the prejudices of the past, and that if the demagogues and those who exploit our racial divisions will simply go away, then all our problems would be solved.
