Last night on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver once again pointed out an inherent flaw with the United States government in that our judiciary system is — quite often — an elected process. In fact, the only other country in the world that practices an elected judiciary system is Bolivia.
This is problematic in a variety of ways. For instance, as John Oliver points out — after rolling one judiciary election ad that looks like it came straight out of Dukes of Hazzard and another with a judge whose platform involves being part of a dive team as a volunteer deputy sheriff — that “while political attack ads can be aggressive, judicial attack ads can be downright horrifying.”
Two more terrifying reasons why an elected judicial system is not ideal are that judges apparently tend to be harder on criminals during election systems — so much for that whole impartial thing — in addition to judges shaking down lawyers for campaign contributions, which is “the definition of a conflict of interest.”
In conclusion, Oliver said, “Faith in a strong, independent judiciary is essential for a civilized society. Without it, we’re settling disputes either in Thunderdomes, or via The Purge.” Yet, another reason we’re just that much closer to Idiocracy.
