Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
Great causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the partizans, and the contention is ever hottest on minor matters.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nominalist and Realist." Essays: Second Series, James Munroe and Company, 1844, p. 248.
Judges are easily attacked by those who do not like their decisions. In most cases judges can net even ethically defend themselves and so they are common victims of politicians and demagogues.
This was perceived as an attack on social conservatives and a particular sleight to Robert Bork who had previously used part of the phrase as a book title.
Most political analysts agree that all of these were factors that produced the hyperpolarization of the time. There were others such as the Republican Southern Strategy which triggered a shift of Democratic conservatives to the Republican party. This made the Republicans more conservative and the Democrats more liberal. Then those strong ideological parties drove many of their moderates out, and the Tea Party ran even more conservative candidates knocking out less conservatives in the primaries. Another factor, the relatively even split of voters nationally causing most candidates to appeal to their bases which became more extreme. However, especially in the House of Representatives, the redistricting created so few competitive districts that there was no need for candidates with safe seats to even be concerned with moderate and undecided voters.
It was reasonable and moderate statements like this that caused the right wing of the Republican Party to abandon McCain when he ran for president, He did appeal to many moderates and independents because of the statements he made opposing the extremes such as this one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
