John Roberts and Donald Trump

Ilya Shapiro makes a great argument at The Federalist that Chief Justice John Roberts gave us Donald Turmp.  By extension, he also gave us Hillary Clinton.

Regular readers might recall that in 2012 I took one sentence out of Roberts Obamacare decision to highlight the very problem that the US now faces.

It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.

That's directly from the opinion  If you don't like the antics of a strongman, then elect your own strongman.  The Court certainly won't restrain him, will indeed, jump through hoops to keep his legislation alive.  The conservative movement died a little bit that day, in 2012, but took the lesson to heart.  All we need is a strongman with a pen, a phone, and contempt for the Constitution.  Trump is certainly no conservative, but he'll do until one comes along.

Mr. Shapiro makes a good argument:

But then Roberts ushered in the Trump tornado. Constitutional conservatism simply couldn’t survive judicial conservatism. The genteel Roberts and the vulgar Trump thus have one thing in common: a belief that judges should stop striking down laws and just let political majorities rule, individual liberty be damned.

 Instead of teaching the people that our republican form of government works, we’re left with the false empowerment of a self-consuming democracy.* Comes now our own Peron, leading his modern-age descamisados down the road to a “Great America” that could genuinely have existed if Roberts had only done his job.

Given the opportunity, I would still spit on the shoes of John Roberts.   I cry for our country.