Anyone who has analyzed the causes of the failure of Spanish American nations to prosper in freedom will find at least two determining features: the excessive intervention of the State and the weakness of institutions. While in other developed nations stability is greater, in most Latin American countries electoral results can put a damper on all kinds of projects and investments. This is because the new leaders, in the absence of solid institutions to limit their whims, become a kind of oriental despot who can do and undo as they please, often undermining any trace of legal security. Since the decisions of the newcomers can affect practically all areas, we see the recurrent phenomenon of general paralysis as early as two years before an election and an uncertainty that scares away investment and long-term projects. Thus, amidst meddling, arbitrary despotism, instability and institutional erosion, prosperity is increasingly becoming an unattainable dream in much of Latin America.
The same keys largely explain the success of the United States, a place that is not perfect but where the State has not yet penetrated all spheres and where the famous checks and balances limit the arbitrariness of the rulers. A formula for success that the Democrats are intent on ruining.
Starting with the great limit to the whims of the Executive: the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court that has particularly annoyed the Democrats with its recent ruling on abortion and which they now want to control in order to prevent this limit to its arbitrariness from continuing to exist. That is why, in just a few days, the Democratic Party has introduced two bills. The first seeks to increase Supreme Court seats from 9 to 13, giving Biden the opportunity to appoint four new justices of his liking in one fell swoop. The second provides for a different appointment system and term limits for judges, thus eliminating their independence.
Insisting on the fallacy that "fundamental freedoms are under attack" by "ultra-conservative" Supreme Court justices, a group of eight House Democrats introduced a bill on July 18 to increase the number of High Court justices by four. Congressman Hank Johnson, from Georgia, gave a lesson in demagoguery by declaring that the SC, as currently constituted, is "in crisis with itself and with our democracy" and therefore "fundamental freedoms are under attack" by the conservative majority, because its members would be making decisions that would usurp "the power of the Legislative and the Executive."
The Democrats seek to control all branches of government, manipulating them at will and destroying the independence of the Judiciary.
It is unlikely that this proposal, which they already presented last year and failed, will prosper now, since it requires a qualified majority, but it expresses very well the pretension of the Democrats to control all branches of government, manipulating them at will and destroying the independence of the Judiciary.
The next Democratic initiative is preceded by a perfectly orchestrated media campaign: while Americans are experiencing out-of-control inflation and the economic crisis first hand, Biden's popularity is plummeting, the Associated Press NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released a poll on July 25 showing that approximately two out of three Americans (82% of whom declared themselves Democratic voters and 57% Republican voters) would be in favor of the term limits or a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices.
A day later, the next step in this campaign was taken, when a group of Democratic congressmen, also led by Hank Johnson, introduced a bill (Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act) to establish limits on Supreme Court justices in that very sense. This law would allow U.S. presidents to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court every two years, in the first and third years of their term, and would limit the term of service of justices on the high court to 18 years. In this way, the Executive would have close control over the highest judicial body.
In short, two measures that those of us who are familiar with the problems suffered by Latin American countries are all too reminiscent of the attempts of so many politicians in those countries to control a Judiciary that sets limits to their whims. Instead of exporting the conditions that have safeguarded freedom and generated prosperity in the United States, the Democrats seem more interested in importing the recipes that have already failed across the continent.
