Politics & Power Quote by Jay Alan Sekulow

“Mainstream America” is doing the heavy lifting here, and that’s the tell. Sekulow isn’t simply praising John Roberts; he’s laundering ideology through a word that sounds like common sense. By pairing “exceptional” with “a conservative judicial philosophy,” he turns what could read as a partisan project into a credential. The move is classic confirmation-season rhetoric: elevate the nominee’s pedigree, then domesticate the consequences.

The specific intent is twofold. First, he frames the Judiciary Committee vote as a kind of empirical validation, as if an internal Senate milestone proves broad public legitimacy. Second, he pre-emptively neutralizes the charge that “conservative” signals extremity. In a high-stakes Supreme Court fight, “conservative” can imply rollback: on abortion, voting rights, executive power, regulatory authority. Sekulow tries to drain that word of its threat and refill it with familiarity.

The subtext is a rebuttal to skeptics who worry about a court tilting right for a generation. “Mainstream” implies that critics are fringe or hysterical, while supporters are calm custodians of national norms. It also hints at an older political strategy: rebranding conservative legal goals (originalism, narrower readings of federal power, skepticism of expansive rights claims) as neutral “judicial philosophy,” not policy in robes.

Context matters: Sekulow, a prominent conservative legal advocate, is speaking into a media environment where nominees are sold as restrained umpires even when their jurisprudence would reshape the playing field. The line works because it asks the public to treat ideology as temperament - and to confuse Senate momentum with democratic consent.