Pollster.com

Let's do this. Let's ask our co-workers and relatives how much they know, if anything, about Kagan's views on the issues. Good luck.

Jack,

No one knows anything about her stance on the issues. She has no judicial experience and very little in scholarly writings. This makes her the perfect candidate, IMO, to make it through the nomination process. She can simply refuse to answer senators' questions regarding how she would settle cases because it may affect her partiality if a similar case were to come up.

Rehnquist has no prior judicial experience either and he turned out to be a great SC judge.

You never know.

Apparently she writes in her senior thesis at Princeton how is unfortunate that there is no viable socialist movement in the US.

A recent poll found that the % of young people who react negatively to "socialist" is about the same as the % who react negatively to the word "capitalist". Perhaps (yeah...this is just pure conjecture...but fun to think about) we can all thank the Tea Party folks, with a big assist from Michele Bachman and friends for this. If people believe that Obama is actually Socialist in his worldview then, given that 48% think he's going a good job as President, that "socialism" he's pushing may not look so bad to them.

Now ask a real socialist and they will uniformly rant and rave about how Obama is a corporatist all the way...a centrist corporatist.

So maybe we SHOULD have a viable Socialist movement here, which would serve to contrast empty rhetoric with ideological reality.

tjample,

No doubt about it that a percentage of the country would love to have Scandinavian style socialism in this country. We have no more capitalism in this country than we do socialism however.

Socialism, though, has been misinterpreted to the old definition of state-owned enterprises. This is really no longer the case in contemporary society. Today, people use the word Socialist to mean someone who supports the Welfare State- with cradle to grave entitlements similar to Europe.

I definitely wouldn't mind there being a Socialist Party. :o)

FM - We have a socialist party, they are called Democrats.

"Apparently she writes in her senior thesis at Princeton how is unfortunate that there is no viable socialist movement in the US."

She should be able to sidestep that. Ask Creigh Deeds how successful going after what someone wrote back in college is for you. Just because you wrote about a theory back in the day doesn't mean you subscribe to it.

There used to be politicians in America that leaned more toward socialism than today, and they took from both the repubicans and democrats. Robert LaFollette, for example.

"Today, people use the word Socialist to mean someone who supports the Welfare State- with cradle to grave entitlements similar to Europe."

That's not socialism, though. Liberal =/= socialist. If that is the case than we have a TON of socialism in America.

There is a socialist party USA, but it's mostly a joke.

How can 66% of the population possibly have an opinion on this? I doubt even half that number could tell you 3 facts about Elena Kagan.

Apparently she writes in her senior thesis at Princeton how is unfortunate that there is no viable socialist movement in the US.

Apparently you're wrong. She wrote a standard historical thesis which examined the socialist movement in New York in the early 20th century. She didn't say it was unfortunate, she didn't rue or lament its passing. She did scholarly work examining a historical movement as part of a college project.

Funny thing is we may be more Socialist right now than Scandinavia.

Very gently and quietly, Sweden has been reducing it's entitlements and tax rates for a couple of decades now. Nice and slow, a percent or two a year. Their top individual and corporate rates tax are below ours now. They've been doing what their economists/budget directors recommended to do to avoid the outcome similar to what's happening in Southern Europe right now.

In another example, France is starting to quietly and gradually privatize certain health care services, since the current state is beginning to be deemed unsustainable.

This early opinion is probably just the baseline divide being expressed. You always get x / x on anything in this country. Just like with a Bush pick, there is going to be X number who won't support the pick no matter what.

The numbers will change as the media tells us all how wonderful she is and how the GOP in the Senate try and paint her as not the best pick.....we've seen this game a million times...

SJT,

"She called the story of the socialist movement’s demise “a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America ... In unity lies their only hope.”

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/05/03/26081/

@ Statypolly

From the same article:

“Elena Kagan is about the furthest thing from a socialist. Period. And always had been. Period,” Wilentz explained.

The quote you bring out as some evil smoking gun of her socialist bent is nothing of the sort. She's drawing on her examination of the decline of the socialist movements to inform what she thinks makes social movements viable, namely a united front.

I can't wait till the same people who claim she's some dirty pinko commie try to smear her by tying her to Goldman Sachs.

Oh relax, SJT.

I couldn't care less whether she was a socialist at 20 or not. Even Barack's writings at 40 are far more socialist than hers at 20. She is clearly to the right of Sotamayor, for example.

You never know what kind of justice she'll be. She is a young 50, and I am optimistic that she may still mature and see the light.

She is clearly an impressive intellect. And here I was, thinking she was just another pretty face..

Stillow,

Not far off, that's for sure. Check out Robert Samuelson's article in the WashPo.

How one can lament on socialism's demise is beyond me. Sjt22/Staypolly, we will never know what she meant by that line in her thesis. One can speculate but no more. I would think she is in favor of the welfare/nanny state and not the old traditional definition of socialism.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/09/AR2010050902443.html

FM,

I would guess that she has an abundance of that all importance "empathy" for the little guy, but optimistic that she also has the intellect to discern Sumuelson's points.

The left is pretty uneasy about her. I think she'll be fairly moderate.

As long as she believes in a "living constitution" whereby she can adjust it to fit her and Obama's ideology, she is well qualified.

"Stillow:

FM - We have a socialist party, they are called Democrats.

Posted on May 11, 2010 2:18 PM"

About as accurate and intelligent as calling neo-cons Fascists. Well done.