Official 2005 photo of Chief Justice John G. Roberts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Supreme Court decision today on the Affordable Care Act, AKA “Obamacare,” shocked my system. It was the first jolt of optimism about the future of America that I’d felt in months. And I hadn’t expected to have any reaction at all.
Chief Justice John Roberts is the man of the hour. With one stroke he won for himself a place in American history.
I can’t claim full understanding of the High Court’s ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act. My gut reaction is it changes everything. It goes far beyond the legal issues at hand. This ruling might be the turning point that saves the American system.
Before the ruling, the U.S. government and body politic were stuck in the mud in the middle of an unmapped swamp. Congress looked totally incapable of action. The American electorate seemed more sharply divided than at any time in history, more divided even than in the time leading up to the Civil War.
Suddenly, I see a ray of sunshine penetrating the swamp. Am I hyperventilating or what?
I don’t know how this impacts the remainder of the 2012 election. I sense the advantage goes to President Barack Obama. The Supreme Court ruling may be the slap in the face that brings the great center of the American electorate back to its senses. But that’s conjecture.
Chief Justice Roberts has given the American political system a second chance, a reprieve, a dispensation. The Court decision gives the American body politic one authoritative focus point, a North Star, by which to find its way out of the swamp.
The 2012 election and the future of America remains unpredictable. But for this brief moment, Chief Justice John Roberts is the man. Just my opinion
— John Hayden
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