At a crucial juncture in its history, the Republican Party had a choice between continuing to respect its storied lineage of conservative icons or burning everything devoid of Trump’s brand. With the ridicule of a Vietnam war prisoner and former senator, John McCain, the party demonstrated a shift away from its respect for senior party figures. The passing of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court and a Republican Arizona state legislator, offered another instance to honor their own. Instead, a plan to commission her a statue was rejected.
According to AZ Mirror, conservatives decided against the honoring of the moderate Republican as they found it offensive. Representative Alexander Kolodin, from Scottsdale, expressed that the statue was not planned to be placed in the Arizona Capitol, but in the United States Capitol. He criticized O’Connor’s decisions on abortion and affirmative action, calling her “undistinguished”.
However, it should be observed that O’Connor, a Stanford Law graduate, was a prominent leader in her state before establishing a lengthy career at the pinnacle of constitutional order; that could hardly be seen as undistinguished. Her approach to conservatively respecting constitutional precedent while slowly eroding progressive rulings might not be popular with the current far-right base.
Rep. Neal Carter also voiced his displeasure at O’Connor, citing a supposed conversation with an unnamed Supreme Court justice who commented negatively about O’Connor. Carter viewed honors as meritorious and reasoned that original state association was not cause enough for recognition. This raises questions about how the Republican Party would entertain honors for other Arizona figures such as McCain or Barry Goldwater, given their expressed objections to O’Connor’s abortion jurisprudence.
Nevertheless, Rep. Matt Gress, who sponsored the failed statue bid, described O’Connor as a pioneer and everything that Arizona stands for, illustrating that not every Republican shares the same antagonistic sentiments.
For more in-depth coverage, the original article can be read in full here.