Why the Bitter Fight Over the Appointment of a New Supreme Court Justice?

Our leadership in Washington has just ended a bitter, year-long fight to fill a vacancy in the Supreme Court. The reason for the battle is, the nine justices (and all judges, for that matter) wield significantly more power than the drafters of our Constitution ever intended, having usurped this power from the senators and representatives whom we elect, and periodically re-elect, to make our laws. The current Supreme Court fight is over, but the underlying causes have not changed.
The reason our nation has thrived like no other nation in the history of the world is due primarily to our carefully crafted Constitution. It has given us a nation of laws, not a nation of people who can do whatever they desire.  These laws are written by representatives we elect, to represent our best interests. They are carried out through the executive branch, with disputes settled  by an independent judiciary.
How has it happened that the power of the judiciary has grown, while that of our elected officials has diminished? As time passes, people’s needs and views change, and laws need to change to reflect this movement. In order to change laws constitutionally, however, the majority of our representatives must agree on the alteration. But, if elected officials can’t get enough votes to change a law, there is increasingly a way around it – get the courts to reinterpret old laws in a new way, then you no longer need a new law.
How do you get the judges to interpret old laws in ways never intended by those who wrote those laws? You simply appoint judges who are willing to redefine the meaning of words to connote whatever they want them to imply, and call them “living laws” and call the Constitution a “living document.” After all, you don’t want to be bound by something written over two centuries ago — that would be ludicrous, right?
Well, yes, it would be ludicrous, except within the Constitution there are provisions made for changing laws and the Constitution. But that requires that we believe in democracy, where the will of the majority governs, and that when one takes the oath to uphold the Constitution, he means it.
Once we buy into the argument that words no longer have meaning, and that words mean whatever the courts want them to mean, we no longer need elected officials — these well-meaning judges can decide for us. On the U. S. Supreme Court alone, we have nine judges replacing 535 elected senators and representatives. We, by no means, need to give into this assault on our freedom to govern ourselves; we don’t need to shutter the doors of Congress and of our 50 states legislatures. While the clouds hanging over our democracy are gray and becoming darker, they are not black yet. 
It is encouraging to know that the Father of our Nation foresaw this type of difficulty. In his Farewell Address, he stated:
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. …However… unprincipled men will … subvert the power of the people and .. usurp for themselves the reins of government…(and) undermine what cannot be directly overthrown…. it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. — George Washington
 Forewarned is forearmed. We see what is happening, but we have the power in our hands to reverse it. In order to restore the courts to their proper role of interpreting laws the way that they are written, and restore our elected officials’ rightful authority, we must elect presidents and governors who only nominate judges who have a track record of interpreting laws as they are written.  Elections must not be a hollow process, where our will, as spoken through our representatives, is supplanted by a tiny, non-represented, elite group.
Back to the question, Why the bitter fight over one Supreme Court judge? Because he’s holding such great power — our power. But given that we possess the means to restore power to the people, let’s use our vote to do so.         
Art Hall
From the Bible — Let your heart take courage. Psalm 31:25