{"id":1994706,"date":"2023-08-08T19:14:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T23:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-the-time-thomas-sowell-schooled-joe-biden-in-front-of-congress\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T19:15:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T23:15:36","slug":"watch-the-time-thomas-sowell-schooled-joe-biden-in-front-of-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-the-time-thomas-sowell-schooled-joe-biden-in-front-of-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Thomas Sowell Schools Joe Biden in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwatch-the-time-thomas-sowell-schooled-joe-biden-in-front-of-congress%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1994706&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Few figures in conservativism are more revered than Thomas Sowell<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/usa-today-asks-is-math-racist-gets-ripped-online-sign-of-cultural-sickness\/\" title=\"USA Today Asks, \u2018Is Math Racist\u2019; Gets Ripped Online: \u2018Sign Of Cultural Sickness\u2019\">free-market economist<\/a>, social\u200c theorist\u2062 and philosopher, Sowell\u2019s work has spanned decades and influenced generations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sowell wrote a nationally \u2062syndicated column, authored \u2063dozens of books and \u200bdazzled \u2063television audiences time \u200cand time again with his common sense, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/it-is-a-moral-freak-show-msnbc-says-evangelical-movement-is-anti-intellectual-anti-science-moral-freak-show\/\" title=\"\u2018It Is A Moral Freak Show\u2019: MSNBC Says Evangelical Movement Is \u2018Anti-Intellectual,\u2019 \u2018Anti-Science\u2019 \u2018Moral Freak Show\u2019\">anti-intellectual approach<\/a> to political and cultural issues.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The following \u2064story is part of The Western Journal\u2019s exclusive series \u201cThe Sowell Digest.\u201d Each issue\u200b will\u200d break\u200c down and summarize one of Sowell\u2019s many influential works.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In 1987, Thomas Sowell appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify in support of Judge Robert Bork, whom then-President\u200d Ronald \u200bReagan had nominated\u2063 to the\u200c U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Sowell opened with a statement defending Bork\u2019s record and views. Then, he answered questions from the \u200dcommittee chair, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of\u200b Delaware.<\/p>\n<p>Both Sowell\u2019s opening statement and his answers to Biden reflected the intense atmosphere surrounding the nomination hearing. \u200bAs usual, Sowell made his case with restrained eloquence, but \u2064he also knew\u200b that important principles\u2063 were at stake. While endorsing Bork,\u2064 Sowell \u2064gave a powerful defense of both equality before the law and constitutional originalism.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/national-day-prayer-highlights-important-role-faith-played-americas-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reagan<\/a> announced Bork\u2019s nomination on \u2063July 1. Liberal Democrats responded,\u2062 as they always have, by stoking\u200c fear and playing\u2063 what\u2064 we now call \u201cidentity politics.\u201d Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts took the \u2064lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRobert Bork\u2019s America is a land in which women would be forced into \u200dback-alley abortions, blacks would \u2062sit at segregated lunch\u200c counters, rogue police could break down citizens\u2019 doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren \u2062could not be \u2064taught about evolution, writers and artists could be\u2063 censored at the whim of the \u2063Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions\u200c of\u200c citizens,\u201d Kennedy said according \u2062to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1987\/07\/05\/opinion\/washington-kennedy-and-bork.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, with the \u2064slanderous charge that Bork supported \u201csegregated lunch counters,\u201d among other things, Kennedy set the tone\u2062 for the most contentious Supreme Court nomination in\u200d U.S. history.<\/p>\n<p>It was\u2064 in \u200bthis context that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-sowell-brutally-debunk-feminist-face\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sowell<\/a> \u200bappeared before Biden\u2019s committee.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h3>In\u2064 his opening statement, Sowell rejected the Democrats\u2019 use of categories such as sex and race to evaluate Bork\u2019s record.<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThe \u200bstatistics thrown around \u2062recklessly as to how Judge\u200c Bork has \u2062allegedly voted against\u2064 women X percent of the time, or for some\u2062 other class of litigants Y percent of the time, are\u2062 no more reliable than the definitions used by the special-interest sources from which they come,\u201d Sowell\u200b said.<\/p>\n<p>Then, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-joe-rogan-literally-gasps-learns-thomas-sowells-teaching-black-rednecks-white-liberals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sowell<\/a> made it \u2064clear that\u200c he spoke for \u200cthe principle of\u2062 equality before the\u200b law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCivil rights need\u200d to be understood not simply as a special benefit to minorities \u2064but\u200d as \u200dsomething essential to everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Biden \u200cengaged Sowell on the subject of school desegregation.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange revealed much confusion \u200con <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/confused-biden-gets-lost-event-needs-escorted-young-girl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Biden\u2019s<\/a> part \u2014 a confusion common among those on the political left who struggle to understand certain aspects of constitutional originalism.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, in the 1950s and 1960s,\u2064 a leftist and a constitutional originalist would have agreed on the need for school desegregation. However, where a\u200c constitutional originalist would have said\u2064 that segregation violated the Constitution,\u200b a leftist would have \u200cargued that the \u200bgovernment had\u200c a special responsibility to \u200blook after certain groups and to adjudicate their \u2064interests according \u2064to historical grievances, \u2063which required that judges expand the Constitution\u2019s original meaning to suit modern needs.<\/p>\n<p>Sowell made all of this \u2063clear in \u2062his \u200bexchange with Biden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is not whether you \u200bbelieve that school segregation should have \u200bended. I believe that it should have ended long\u200d before. Judge Bork believes it should have ended long before. What he and what I have objected to are the principles used\u2063 in that decision \u200bbecause those principles take on a life of their own, and they come back to haunt you in other areas. Obviously, there\u2019s this old \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-the-time-thomas-sowell-schooled-joe-biden-in-front-of-congress\/\" title=\"Watch: Thomas Sowell Schools Joe Biden in Congress\">phrase \u2018hard cases make bad law\u2019 derived<\/a> from that fact. You dream \u200dup a principle to \u2064reach this result, and then the principle has a life of its\u200d own,\u201d Sowell said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-even-sign-language-interpreter-looks-shocked-bidens-confusing-turkey-comment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Biden<\/a> \u2062 seemed\u2063 confused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the\u2063 principle of desegregating\u200c the schools,\u201d he began \u2062before Sowell quickly \u200binterrupted and corrected\u2063 him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. That \u2063wasn\u2019t the principle. The\u200d principle was the \u200dreason that they picked for it,\u201d Sowell said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, that\u2019s all I\u2019m saying. OK. The reasons they picked for desegregating the schools you and \u200cJudge Bork agree were wrong principles and they, should have not, the court shouldn\u2019t have \u200bdone that,\u201d Biden said in a vain attempt to clarify.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. No. The court should have done it,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/sowell-warned-tucker-carlson-problem-10-years-later-biden-made-even-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sowell<\/a> replied. \u201cBoth of \u200bus have said the court should \u2064have done\u2064 it. And in my case and I\u200b think in his case the court \u200cshould\u2064 have done it \u2064a lot sooner,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d Biden asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should have ruled that it wasn\u2019t equal protection of \u2064the law because nobody in his right mind believes\u2062 that there was equal protection of the law in the Jim Crow Era of these school\u2062 systems,\u201d Sowell responded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just trying to figure out what you\u2019re saying,\u201d Biden said.\u2064 Clearly, the chairman of \u200dthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/us-senators-issued-satellite-phones-preparation-disruptive-event\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Senate<\/a> \u200d Judiciary\u2063 Committee was out of his depth.<\/p>\n<p>Sowell then reached his argument\u2019s crescendo. In short, he said,\u200d anyone who supports special treatment under the \u200claw supports the principle of segregation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSee, this is \u200cwhat bothers \u200dme. People are talking about how judges should be\u2062 sensitive to this particular group or that particular group, and if that means \u2064anything, if\u2064 it means\u2062 he\u2019s applying the law differently, that\u2019s precisely\u2063 how blacks were \u200dheld down for generations in the South, by applying the law differently,\u201d Sowell said.<\/p>\n<p>It was a masterful conclusion to an impressive \u200btestimony.<\/p>\n<p>Biden, who struggled to follow Sowell\u2019s reasoning, refused to recommend Bork for the\u2062 full Senate\u2019s approval. On \u2063Oct. 23, 1987, the Senate voted 58-42 against\u2062 confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200dpost <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-time-thomas-sowell-schooled-joe-biden-front-congress\/\">Watch: The Time Thomas Sowell Schooled Joe Biden in Front\u2064 of Congress<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western\u200c Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>conservative icon Thomas Sowell, a respected economist, philosopher, and social theorist, has left an indelible mark on generations. With a nationally syndicated column, numerous books, and captivating TV appearances, his practical, anti-intellectual perspective on political and cultural matters has earned him immense admiration in the conservative sphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2056,"featured_media":1994707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1994706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1994706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1994706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1994706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}