You've written the portrait of a man whose natural reservoir of empathy has been irrevocably damaged.

We could argue whether or not empathy is necessary to interpret the Constitution and apply it to legal decisions. But there is no doubt that without empathy, a society is unbearably harsh, unforgiving, irreconcilable.

Thomas reflects his milieu, unfortunately. The ideological divide in America is all of those things: harsh, unforgiving, irreconcilable. Those who are not with us are against us; those who do not agree are enemies, traitors. That language and those emotions have desensitized us across the political spectrum. We send vast numbers of our citizens to prisons of nearly medieval cruelty; our police have been transformed into armed, violent militias; we don't think twice about pre-emptive wars or their human costs; we strip Constitutional rights from anyone we suspect of being against us; we disdain the UN and world opinion; we despise the underclass, whether they are native or Mexicans just looking for work, and expect hatred in return.

How long can democracy endure without empathy, conciliation, compromise? Down that road lies fascism. Thomas' ideology on the Court is a very dangerous thing.