Contrasting McCain and Obama on the Courts

CNS News has an insightful article which clearly points out the difference in judicial philosophy between John McCain and Barack Obama.

Here is McCain's approach:

McCain wants to appoint judges who hold a constructionist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, according to his campaign's Web site.

"When applying the law, the role of judges is not to impose their own view as to the best policy choices for society but to faithfully and accurately determine the policy choices already made by the people and embodied in the law," McCain said. "The judicial role is necessarily limited and one that requires restraint and humility."

Here is Obama's view:

"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," Obama told a Planned Parenthood conference in Washington, D.C., in 2007 "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

We are a nation of laws, not feeling or empathy. Feelings are fleeting; they can change from one day to the next, and even from one moment to the next. They can be utterly irrational, and we often end up with terrible regret after acting on our feelings. Emotions are usually self-centered with little regard for the welfare of others, and even less for the health of a society.

Law provides a solid foundation. It can be changed through the republican process when necessary, but that process takes time and is sifted through many hands and many minds. Our process of representative democracy provides more stability and helps weed out the fleeting passions which can lead us down the wrong path.

Any sane, intelligent person understands that you don't build a civilization on feelings and empathy, but on principle and law.

The Bible says the human heart is deceitful and wicked above all things. I don't think we want to base justice on something deceitful and wicked.

This emotionalism approach is where Obama, and liberalism in general, goes horribly wrong.