By Joseph Jarvis | Guest Opinion for The Deseret News, Oct 6, 2020, 12:00pm MDT
Four years ago, after Mr. Trump’s very surprising election victory, I was challenged by my very progressive aunt and uncle about why I had not voted for Ms. Clinton (I did not vote for Mr. Trump either). They assumed that people like me who didn’t vote for her must have been motivated by ‘misogyny’, their word for someone being unable to envision a woman serving as president.
In response, I reminded them that my wife has spent forty years battling real misogyny in her career as an attorney—unfair pay, no maternity/paternity leave, outright gender discrimination, vulgarity, poor or no support for career development for women, and many, many other abuses. More than most voters I was very ready for a woman to become president but didn’t find leadership qualities I could admire in Ms. Clinton, principally because she let her own ambitions render her silent on the issue of sexual harassment when it mattered.
I don’t practice identity politics; a candidate’s personal characteristics don’t qualify them for office. In my opinion, instead, one should look for candidate’s with content to their character: integrity, justice, equity, and service to the rule of law.
I have been reminded of that conversation this past while as I followed the news of Justice Ginsberg’s death and the political fallout that has ensued. My wife joined the legal profession just a generation after Ruth Bader Ginsberg graduated from Columbia. Like Justice Ginsberg, she was near the top of her law school class, but had difficulty finding employment. Those who interviewed her were of the opinion that my wife, who was already a mother, could not both excel at the law and tend to a family.
I have followed Justice Ginsberg’s career on the bench of the US Supreme Court avidly, because she and my wife shared so many experiences as women trying to both practice law and enjoy motherhood. Justice Ginsberg had the character content that matters.
I have been grateful for her leadership, but the effort to secure a fair and equal opportunity for women in the law, and many other careers, is far from over. My wife is enjoying a stellar career and has been repeatedly recognized by peers and clients for her service, but her talent and success has not always muted male colleagues who have at times undermined and demeaned her. She must carry on, as must we all, with an enduring effort to fully realize a just and equitable opportunity for every American.
No appointee to the US Supreme Court, whether by this president or the next, will likely have the epic impact on American society that has been the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. We miss the point of her life and particularly her Supreme Court career if we focus solely on the details of how and by whom she will be replaced on the bench.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg repeatedly faced hypocrisy, but found a way to make a difference while moving beyond it and leaving it behind.
Justice Ginsberg apparently expressed a desire for the nomination of her replacement to occur after the coming inauguration, reflecting the will of the people as the determinant of her successor, but, consistent with her example, we must act rather than focus on being uselessly angry at those who show less faith in the people and ignore her wishes because they have the power to do so. Ruth Bader Ginsberg repeatedly faced hypocrisy, but found a way to make a difference while moving beyond it and leaving it behind.
In honor of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, I will cast my ballot for candidates who have the character content that matters. These are times that demand leaders who aspire to the highest human qualities: integrity, justice, equity, and service to the rule of law. Party affiliation is not important. Partisanship is hypocrisy, not patriotism. Like Justice Ginsberg, let’s leave partisan hypocrisy behind and support candidates who speak truth, who know how to gracefully disagree with others, and who show a true love and respect for the law.
Dr. Joseph Jarvis is a public health physician and author of two books: “The Purple World: Healing the Harm in American Health Care” and “What the Single Eye Sees: Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Pursuit of Discipleship.”