It’s hard to escape the feeling that people are slowly pulling bricks out of the wall that shores up the American government these days. We are already at a point where both the approval of and confidence in our government are reaching all-time lows, as seen in many recent polls. At the Washington Post this week, columnist Perry Bacon jr. tosses another log on that fire with a piece titled, “There is only one way to reign in Republican judges: Shame them.”

Right off the bat, you might notice that the phrase “Republican judges” is invoked. Judicial positions should (at least in theory) be lifted above purely partisan politics. Except in some lower courts where judges are elected rather than appointed, we’re not supposed to have “Republican judges” or “Democratic judges.” We clearly have conservative and progressive judges, and a vanishing few that are truly moderates. But even with that said, note that Bacon clearly doesn’t feel that there are any Democratic or progressive judges in need of being “reined in” or “shamed.”

So precisely how would this “shaming” work and what might it accomplish? Bacon explains his reasoning, or at least what passes for it.

So at least in the short term, there is only one real option to rein in America’s overly conservative judiciary: shame.

Democratic politicians, left-leaning activist groups, newspaper editorial boards and other influential people and institutions need to start relentlessly blasting Republican-appointed judges. A sustained campaign of condemnation isn’t going to push these judges to write liberal opinions, but it could chasten them toward more moderate ones…

This kind of shaming has already been shown to work. . .  Many of the opinions of Kavanaugh, who is now the court’s swing justice, seem almost intentionally written to minimize public blowback.

Leaving aside the blatantly partisan nature of this critique, what we’re seeing in this column isn’t simply an erroneous analysis of the judiciary. It’s yet another dangerous call to arms seeking to continue to undermine our governmental institutions. Does Mr. Bacon not think that enough “shaming” of judges and justices has taken place? To gain some additional perspective, perhaps the author could go and ask the guy who showed up outside of Associate Justice Kavanaugh’s house with a gun.

But we’re talking about more here than the physical safety of our judges. We’re talking about the undermining of the basic foundations of our system of government. The system established by the Founders is admittedly fragile, but it only manages to keep working if most of the people believe in it. At Reason, Josh Blackman points out that a collapse of faith in the judicial branch could eventually lead to a president simply ignoring the ruling of a federal court if they disagreed with the decision. He asks, if “a President will openly flout a federal court judgment. Who will send in the 101st Airborne?”

For generations, the Supreme Court mostly hewed a progressive jurisprudence.  Even if there were conservative blips here and there, appointees of Democratic and Republic presidents alike ruled in ways that were conducive to the political left. Litigants routinely judge-shopped cases (Amarillo has nothing on Montgomery), certain that the Supreme Court had their backs. During those golden times, judicial supremacy was considered a necessary condition of our polity.

But those times are gone. Prominent scholars openly speak out against judicial supremacy. And that academic theme carries over to the political realm. Indeed, Senator Wyden called on President Biden to “ignore” a district court’s ruling. Not even Orval Faubus was so audacious.

The other obvious aspect of Bacon’s column can be found if you read between the lines. What exactly is his complaint with some of the rulings delivered by judges in cases ranging from student loan cancellation to abortion to Second Amendment rights? It’s clearly not that the decisions weren’t sustained by constitutional principles. It’s that he didn’t agree with the decisions.

I read through Perry Bacon’s background and I don’t see any record of him ever serving as a judge or even an attorney. And yet he has looked at the rulings made by these “Republican judges” and decided to substitute his own preferences in their place. Courts deliver decisions I don’t care for on a regular basis, but I’m not looking to wipe out the judiciary across the country and replace it with partisans I might agree with more often.

This call to “shame” judges is what is truly shameful, not to mention dangerous. When the people stop believing that the courts act as the guardrails of the democratic process, they will begin to act accordingly. And if we reach the point where presidents and governors begin simply ignoring the dictates of the courts, then the great experiment known as America is truly over.