When bad poetry meets Senate confirmation hearings

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Last month, Joe Biden nominated Mustafa T. Kasubhai for a position as a federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Kasubhai had previously served as a Magistrate Judge on the same court and as a county circuit court judge before that, so his selection wasn’t too surprising. But when he faced off against the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the confirmation process, the nominee had a few surprises waiting for him. The Republicans on the committee had clearly done their homework and done a deep dive into Kasubhai’s background, going all the way back to his days in law school. First, Marsha Blackburn asked him about his history of supporting Marxist beliefs. He flatly denied that was the case. But then Ted Cruz got his chance, and he began reciting from a poem that Kasubhai wrote in law school called, “Sensualized Property Theory.” Things went downhill quickly from there. (Huffington Post)

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During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Cruz told Oregon district court nominee Mustafa Kasubhai that he was “intrigued” that Kasubhai had denied to another Republican committee member, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), that he is a Marxist.

“You said, and I wrote it down, ‘I have not praised Marxist ideas,’” Cruz said, obviously preparing to tee up something to the contrary. “As you know in law, there is the fact of evidence.”

And then, straight out of an English lit major’s nightmare, he began reading aloud a poem that Kasubhai wrote decades ago, when he was a student in law school, called “Sensualized Property Theory.”

You can read some excerpts from the poem at the link, but I’ll just warn you that it’s pretty bad. The poem involves lovers intimately kissing and “exquisitely explosive eros.” You may be wondering what that has to do with property, and so was Cruz. But he went on to read other excerpts where the judge compares the works of John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, and Karl Marx. He wrote that the “concept of property” is about more than simply owning things. It was definitely Marxist ideology.

When Cruz asked him to clarify what all that gobbledygook about “redefining property” actually meant, Kasubhai said that his writing in law school “was far from clear or articulate.” He went on to describe the poem as “definitely not good.” But the quality of the poetry really wasn’t the point that the senators were trying to drive home. It was the thinking behind it. As Cruz pointed out, the idea of redefining property in that fashion was clearly flirting with Marxism.

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When the judge insisted that this was all from thirty years ago, Cruz began reading from a speech that he gave in 2020.

“Privilege derives its power from the belief in scarcity,” Cruz read. “Scarcity of money, natural resources, food and power itself. The desire to control it all drives privilege. I want to suggest to you that equity, the idea of equity, rejects this model of scarcity.”

All Kasubhai could say in response was that he “never considered that to be Marxist.” It obviously was, but we shouldn’t expect these revelations to slow the process down. He was an obvious pick for Joe Biden because he is both Black and Muslim. As far as Biden and the Democrats on the committee who will vote for him are concerned, a bit of hardcore Marxism isn’t a disqualifying characteristic. Heck, it might even be seen as a bonus.

This is just the latest reason that it’s so important to get Joe Biden out of office and to do so expediently as if you needed another reminder. If he’s loading up the bench with Marxists, Biden will be doing damage to this country for many years to come after his reign ends.

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David Strom 7:20 PM | December 20, 2024
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