In My Grandfather’s Son, Clarence Thomas tells the story of his contentious confirmation hearing in great detail. Back in the fall of 1991, Thomas faced unexpected charges of sexual harassment brought by liberals attempting not just to defeat him, but to destroy his reputation and perhaps to intimidate other conservatives from seeking a Supreme Court appointment. The charges were echoed in the liberal media in what amounted to an electronic lynch mob.
Now the same bad actors are at it again, attacking Justice Thomas in an effort to neuter the Court and sway its rulings on former President Trump’s appeals and other matters. Not long ago, a little known Virginia politician initiated a lawsuit charging that Thomas had failed to file state taxes under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxes Act (VFATA). This is just the latest in a long history of questionable scrutiny by the Democrat-controlled Senate Finance Committee and many others.
The current charges against Thomas are the result of liberal desperation and resemble what happened back in 1991. During Thomas’s confirmation hearing, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee would stop at nothing to block his appointment, ultimately bringing forth Anita Hill to accuse him of sexual impropriety. Through all of this abuse, not just from the Committee, but from the media as well, Thomas retained his composure by drawing on the strong faith that his grandfather had taught him.
Unlike the Senate Democrats who attacked him (the most important of whom was then-senator Joe Biden, then chair of the Judiciary Committee), Thomas was a man of total integrity and genuine humility. During the height of the crisis, when his confirmation hung by a thread and his reputation lay in question, Thomas turned to what he called “the inward reality of my spiritual life” (Grandfather’s Son 254).
At that moment, Thomas even questioned whether he — not the pompous liberals on the Judiciary Committee — “had committed the sin of pride.” Had he put his pride in his reputation ahead of his faith in God? Had he forgotten Christ’s words in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, let this cup pass from me. But thy will, not mine be done”?
What a contrast with those mendacious, vindictive Democrats on the committee and those who attack him now! I doubt whether many of them spent their hours outside the hearing room joined in prayer and questioning the purity of their own motives. Thomas was right when he wrote, “I often wondered who had appointed these posturing zealots to be watchdogs over the judiciary. Was anyone watching them, examining their backgrounds, agendas, and motives?” (Grandfather’s Son 200).
That statement from 2007 now seems prophetic. Would Joe Biden now withstand anything like the intense scrutiny that Clarence Thomas has faced from the time of his nomination to the Supreme Court? During the nomination hearings, Thomas submitted himself to hours of questioning and never refused to answer questions or withheld information. Biden, who voted against his nomination despite a promise to Thomas to support him, is now like a man in hiding. It’s been many months since Biden held an open press conference, and his attorney general continues to withhold documents from Rep. James Comer on the House Oversight Committee.
How can Democrats and their media supporters get away with it? Once again, the progressive media lynch mob is at it, assuming guilt on the part of an honorable man who has never been convicted of or formally charged with any crime.
The contrast with Joe Biden is striking. Many would say that Biden has been shifty and dishonest his whole life, just as he was during the Clarence Thomas hearing, if we are to accept Thomas’s account of what happened. Now Biden appears to be hiding behind his senility, claiming in effect that he is too ill or too tired to answer questions about charges of corruption and inappropriate foreign influence — at the same time that he claims to be physically and mentally fit for re-election.
If Biden were behaving in the manner of Clarence Thomas, not only would he be answering questions, but he would be searching his soul to be certain that he had acted properly. But there doesn’t seem to be one iota of this kind of humility in Joe Biden and certainly no soul-searching.
After the death of the grandparents who raised him, Clarence Thomas felt guilt for having moved away from their values and, for a time, alienating himself from them. “I came to understand that there was nothing I could do to assuage [the guilt] but to embrace with humility the spiritual legacy of my grandparents. Long ago [my grandfather] had said that their way of life and his unshakable belief in the redeeming power of work would be my inheritance” (Grandfather’s Son 170).
Now, nearly 35 years later, Justice Thomas has more than demonstrated the unwavering commitment he made to his grandparents’ “spiritual legacy” and belief in work. He has also shown another of his grandparents’ qualities: even as his fame and influence have growth, he has remained a humble man not given to the sin of pride.
All of us, but especially liberals, would do well to study Justice Thomas’s example. He is a truly great man endowed with a remarkable sense of humility. Among those who should look to Thomas’s example is Joe Biden, the same person who stood in judgment of Clarence Thomas back in 1991 and who now boasts of slashing the federal debt, controlling the border, and raising wages for working men — none of which he has actually done.
Better for Biden to say: “I have pursued progressive policies to curry favor with leftist voters and minorities, but those policies have failed. I acknowledge my failures and will change course immediately. I am just an ordinary human being, and not a very good one at that.”
If Biden followed through, I could respect him, though never to the extent I respect Justice Thomas, who for many decades has openly acknowledged his limitations but worked to correct them. But Biden will never change course, partly because he is very old and senile, but mostly because he is a liberal who thinks he is entitled to rule the deplorables.
Over the past 50 years, Clarence Thomas has made substantial contributions to our nation’s justice system. Joe Biden has done nothing but destroy what existed before and warmed the seat he has occupied in Congress and the Executive. And, ironically, it’s Biden who displays the greater sense of hubris.
Conservatives like Clarence Thomas have no need of boasting: they have an uninterrupted record of achievement. So far as I know, Biden had done nothing in Congress or the Executive other than to further his own career, often at the expense of decent servants of the people like Clarence Thomas.
According to his latest disclosure, Justice Thomas’s net worth is between $600,000 and $1,000,000. That compares with Biden’s $10 million — at least what we know about. Meanwhile, the incomes of ordinary Americans have declined during Biden’s presidency, and what’s worse: their freedom is being stolen from them.
Clarence Thomas is a man of great integrity who has faithfully served the American people for over 40 years without enriching himself. What’s Biden got to be proud of?
Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture, most recently Heartland of the Imagination (2011).
Image: Clarence Thomas. Credit: Flickr, public domain.
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