document: But the lesson that should not be lost is the transcendent one : Clarence Thomas made it in America because he was loved . His mother loved him . And when she could no longer care for him she gave him to her parents to bring up , and they loved him too . And they cared enough to scrape together the money every year to put him in a Catholic school where they hoped the nuns would teach and guide him and they did . He got love and love gave him pride and pride gave him confidence that he had a place at the table . This is something we in the age of the-family-that-is-not-a-family forget : the raw power of love and how it is the one essential element in the creation of functioning and successful people , and how its absence twists the psyche and the heart . -LRB- The children of the mother on crack are not consigned to lives of uselessness and pain because AFDC payments are low ; they are so consigned because crack has broken the maternal bond that brings with it caring and succor . -RRB- Lives like Judge Thomas 's remind us of this simple truth . -- It was once thought that to choose a conservative black for a high appointment put liberals in an uncomfortable position , but we will learn in the Thomas hearings that this is no longer so . Not that the hearings will be color blind , it 's just that senators are going to use Mr. Thomas 's race to prove things about themselves with it . Senators of the left will use him to prove they are not minority-whipped . They will demonstrate through measured abuse that they are able to treat a black man as their equal . Their ferocity , they will think , is proof of their sophistication , a compliment : `` Our party does n't patronize minorities . '' This will be cloud cover for their real intention , which is to serve the interests of the interest groups -- the pro-abortion lobby , the civil rights lobby , labor -- that control their careers . Some on the right will use Mr. Thomas 's race to demonstrate again that ours is the party of true racial progress , that not a trace of racism clogs the conservative heart . Expect an especially spirited defense from Jesse Helms . The left will be tough not only because Mr. Thomas represents ideological insult . Those on the left are unmoved by Mr. Thomas 's climb from nothing to something because he did n't do it the right way -- through them and with their programs . His triumph refutes their assumptions ; his life declares that a good man of whatever color can rise in this country without the active assistance of the state . This is a dangerous thing to assert in a highly politicized age . And to make it worse , Judge Thomas did n't `` make it on his own . '' He has been helped all his life by affirmative action , but the kind liberals do not see and can not accept : the uncoerced , unforced affirmative action that Americans tend to take when someone at a disadvantage -- race , physical disability -- needs help . When Mr. Thomas made his moving statement at Kennebunkport last week he thanked the people who had helped him along the way , including the nuns who taught him . -LRB- What a touching and old-fashioned thing to do . If Sandra Day O'Connor had thanked the nuns it would have been a skit on `` Saturday Night Live '' and an issue in her confirmation . -RRB- The nuns ' affirmative action for Clarence Thomas was the only effective , meaningful kind : the kind we perform for individuals , not because it is state-mandated but because it is right , not because we love a race but because we care for people and love our country . One strategy to be expected from Mr. Thomas 's opponents : deference and respect . Expect phrases of rolling sympathy as senators of the left bring up for him his humble origins and congratulate him on his grit and determination . Already I can see Joe Biden 's telegenic tick of a smile , the one he uses to show how civil he is in spite of his growing moral exasperation . He will celebrate Mr. Thomas 's gifts and use them against him . `` But what , Judge Thomas , about those who were not born with your advantages , and by that I mean not wealth and comfort but brilliance and determination and a family . What about those poor blacks not greatly gifted or guided -- what about them ? '' -- For Judge Thomas 's proponents , two great hopes : One is that the administration will hit America where it lives and go over the heads of the talking suits and straight to the people , presenting as witnesses on television the affirmative action crew that lifted a young boy with nothing to great heights -- the mother who was a maid , the grandmother who saved up the tuition and the nuns who helped open his eyes . The force of their presence will remind us that real change in a democracy comes from the people up , not from the government down . The second hope : that the administration will demonstrate moral confidence in its choice and not go into a defensive crouch . In 1980 , '84 and ' 88 , the American people voted overwhelmingly for presidents who promised to appoint conservative jurists . The left calls the Thomas appointment a hijacking , a right-wing coup for the court , but this is the opposite of the truth . Mr. Thomas 's appointment is not a traducing of the people 's will but a fulfillment of their directive . -- Miss Noonan is a writer in New York .
extractive_keyphrases: clarence thomas affirmative action conservative black judge thomas thomas hearings triumph conservative jurists