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A government for the ‘mediocre’ [1]
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Date: 2025-05-18
Roman Hruska would love Donald Trump.
Hruska was a conservative Republican member of the U.S. Senate from Nebraska. He earned a reputation as a – depending on your perspective, plain-speaking or foolishly-speaking –member of Congress during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Nixon, of course, was the Watergate-compromised Chief Executive who resigned from the Oval Office in 1974.
With a Supreme Court vacancy to fill in 1970, Nixon submitted to the Senate for approval the name of Floridian J. Harrold Carswell, who had served as a circuit judge of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and a district judge for the Northern District of Florida. As part of what political observers called Nixon’s Southern Strategy, the President hoped that a nominee from Florida would boost his support among Democratic voters south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
But Carswell had a record as a segregationist and white supremacist, and as an undistinguished jurist.
Good choice, said Hruska – in words that have outlived him in political infamy. “Even if he is mediocre,” Hruska declared, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?”
Carswell didn’t make it to the bench of the nation’s highest court. He was, his record showed and Senators agreed, eminently unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court. The Senate rejected his nomination by a 51-45 vote.
That was not Nixon’s first failure to have a Supreme Court nominee confirmed.
The first was Clement Haysworth Jr.
The previous year, Nixon had proposed Haynsworth, a circuit judge from South Carolina, to fill the associate justice’s seat vacated by Abe Fortas. The strikes against him: anti-civil rights, anti-labor, with accusations of financial conflict of interest.
Another mediocre nominee.
The Senate also turned him down, 55-45.
To his credit, after the Carswell fiasco, Nixon nominated Harry Blackmun, a more-mainstream, more-reputable judge who served 24 years with distinction on the Supreme Court. He was approved 94-0, including the vote of Hruska, who neglected to comment on any putative Blackmun mediocrity.
Did Hruska think most residents of the U.S., even if not graduates of prestigious universities or holders of high political office, would describe themselves as mediocre? Was mediocrity their aspiration?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines mediocre as ”of moderate or low quality, value, ability or performance; ordinary, so-so.”
That’s what Hruska thought of many U.S. citizens. That’s what he thought they deserved.
If the title of Jimmy Carter’s autobiography was “Why Not the Best?” Hruska’s would be “Why Not the Unexceptional?”
The Senator’s choice of words was patronizing to his constituents, or to voters outside of the Cornhusker State. In one inelegant phrase, he managed to diss a large part of the U.S. electorate.
The Senate rejecting a President’s nominee for the Supreme Court was not unprecedented; it had happened frequently, since George Washington. The reasons were often political, or the nominee’s perceived incompetence.
Or plain mediocrity.
But Trump has raised the level of mediocre choices in the government to an unprecedented level, as a badge of honor. Or, more accurately, dishonor.
And this time the Senate has acquiesced.
Trump, as the nation’s leader and head of a political movement [d.b.a. The Republican Party], is the epitome of mediocrity. As the country’s Commander-in-Chief he has surrounded himself, at the highest level of the country, with equally unqualified appointees.
He has, through the power to make executive appointments, has managed to disrespect the entire nation.
He has elevated mediocrity to an art form.
He has demonstrably embarked on a MAGA (Make America Mediocre Again) agenda. He clearly has imposed standards of meh-ness (not to mention unfailing fealty – reclino, ergo sum; I grovel, therefore I am [in Trump’s good graces]) on his personnel appointments. He clearly subscribes to the Hruska ethos of political incompetence. He clearly has lowered the bar of acceptability to historically low levels, shown by the failing ethics of the men and women approved by the cowered Republicans in the Senate.
Besides Matt Goetz, whose unapologetic mendacity made him a politically liability even for the GOP Senators who nearly unanimously approved the rest of the nominees put forward by Trump, the records of venality and shallowness of the CVs of the other men and women put them outside the pale of the Senators’ “aye” votes.
Today, mediocrity reigns at the highest level of the United States.
“Mediocre” is a kind word to describe the unprecedented horridness of the Trump appointees who control much of the everyday life, health and financial stability of less-connected every-day citizens. The president operates in political circles of unqualified bumpkins.
The disastrous results of Trump’s decision-making and personnel choices become evident every day, in the state of the economy, relations with foreign nation, and the diminished reputation of the country overseas.
Trump has poisoned the credibility this country.
The Los Angeles Times described Trump’s nominees as “foot soldiers in a power grab … an odd list of ideologues and eccentrics chosen for political loyalty more than any substantive qualifications,” and the New Republic quoted Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, as saying that the President’s nominees are “not [only] totally unqualified, [but are] anti-qualified. They are qualified to do the opposite of the thing that they are supposed to do.”
The criticism of Trump’s behavior does not come only from the expected political and journalistic and academic voices on the Left.
Some prominent conservative spokesmen have also taken their shots at Trump. National Review rejected the nominations of Gaetz for Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence: The President’s “coalition,” the magazine wrote, “consists of sycophants,” stating that “most” of “picks have three things in common: a moderate to high celebrity quotient, Trump loyalty, and little administrative experience.” US News called Trump’s nominees “a pack of lapdogs … a disaster.” The Wall Street Journal described Trump’s appointees as “an impressive display of MAGA political muscle – but now the President and party will have to live with them.”
If Trump’s cabinet choices were bad in theory, before they were approved by the Senate and had a chance to settle into their new job, they have proven to be even worse in practice. Every day’s headlines reveal a new outrage in some Cabinet action or other federal agency.
Trump’s appointees received virtually unanimous approval in the Senate.
His MO has transcended mere bullying. He has crossed the boundary into unfettered venality. With the help of his fawning appointees.
How much harm could a single inept appointee cause at the highest level of the US government? In the case of Carswell, the answer is purely hypothetical. But the current make-up of the largely conservative supreme court, which has rolled back several earlier liberal decisions, offers a frightening clue.
Hruska, judging by his voting record, probably would have joined his GOP colleagues if he were still in the Senate.
At least Carswell didn’t get the chance to bring his stunted worldview to Supreme Court decisions. No thanks to Hruska.
During the years following Carswell’s proposed nomination, the Supreme Court ruled on such issues as due process, school busing, freedom of the press, and abortion.
If he followed past patterns, he likely would have joined his conservative colleagues in his choices.
As Trump expects the current conservative-dominated Supreme Court to do, in the cases that comes before it.
Trump, who is profoundly ignorant of history, would love Roman Hruska.
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