Talk About A 'Conflicted Judge'
Luis Miron
Director Institute for Quality and Equity in Education and Distinguished University Professor (Ret)
As a Latin American, I know full well where Judge Aileen Cannon lives. I’ve been there, though quickly climbed out of the ever-exacting quest to climb up the American ladder of success; and if possible, to its upper ranks of money or power, or in? Aileen’s case, both.
If this analysis strikes anyone as overly partisan, ideologically, well it is. You’re right. And that is because if anything, Cannon stands upright as an ideologue, an institutional stand-in for the corrupt, no-longer far right; but, now the mainstream MAGA right as exemplified by the actions of its leaders at the national and federal levels. (As an aside it pains my heart to see that both leaders—Speaker Johnson and Governor Landry-- are both Louisianians , though thank god, not from? the Crescent City). In New Orleans, ?conservatives are not as crazily hell-bent on tearing down the institutions of government in the name of a patriotic duty to revolt in a “revolution” to bring back the country to the good-old days of white supremacy, religion in the public schools, and wealthy tax cuts for the wealthy. And in Baton Rouge, a more conservative city, there is a at least a semblance of dignity, despite the governor’s shenanigans to hang the Ten Commandments on the doors of our children’s public classroom.
As to the judge, who presides a few hundred miles from the, now convicted felon of 34 counts, a horrible record even for the all-time loser, it’s clear that if Aileen doesn’t actually practice corruption as a lived modus operandi, she lives in this corrupt world, aiding an abetting the last hope the all-time loser has of avoiding his most spectacular defeat, an orange jump suit, possibly donning the unmistakable garb perhaps at, what must be his greatest nightmare, a jail that’s not a country club.. Judge Canon, it is evident, is either auditioning for a first pick to replace Justice Thomas or Alito, or slow-walking Special Counsel Jack’s Smith prosecution in an actual court to make the once-upcoming trial effectively DOA before election day. Likely both.
Immigrants form Guatemala, my parents go along to get along mantra in their language, was “Sobe le la leva,,’’ loosely “shine their boots” or more colloquially, suck up to the powers that be.
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Cannon is? a puzzle. On one hand, she’s the epitome of the immigrant, particularly from the putative third world, the underdeveloped hemisphere in the South, Latin America. Her ambition to succeed in her parents’ adopted country is a commandment, not merely a goal most Americans aspire. Lately that is beginning to change for the “native born,’ having accelerated during Covid, ditched by scores of millennials, who witnessed, first-hand, that money is not enough when one hates her or his job. Something more that inspire happiness than crassly was the path up to just a few years ago-- the acquisition of wealth, and its power to power through to dominance through absolute power. The acquisition of the latter inevitably leading to absolute corruption.
Cannon would be given a pass if, for instance, she immigrated to escape societies like Cuba under the often tyrannical regime of the Castro brothers, or the Soviet Union before it fell under the weight of its own corruption and pure evil. But she isn’t from these countries. Often confused for a Cuban—I suppose because of the stereotypical view that all Cubans want, after losing their land wealth, and stature in 1958, is more, more, and more. I experienced this culture, the incessant climb toward the “top” among those who justifiably may feel deprived, even victimized. Cannon’s ambition is of a very different ilk altogether. She wants in like Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh. She might get what she really wants, stopping at nothing getting in the way of the ambition of the immigrant, the exact personality that the wanna-be 34-zip loser can wrap around his pinkie.
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Very thoughtful analysis! Thank you!