Of course you're right that the Supreme Court hijack began with Mitch McConnell during Obama's term. But the Dems let him do it.
The Constitution of the United States says that the Senate will consider the President's pick for the Supreme Court and then vote on them. It doesn't say 'unless the Senate Majority leader decides he doesn't want to'. It doesn't says 'unless there's an election within the calendar year'. There are no provisos. It is the job of the Senate to hold hearings on the President's choice.
When McConnell refused to do the job that the Constitution required him to do, the Dems should have raised holy hell. They should have brought legal challenges. They should have said, 'If the leader of the Senate refuses to do the job that the Constitution requires him to do, then he should be replaced by someone who will do the job.' They should have fought for Merrick Garland, they should have dome everything to make sure he got a hearing.
Instead the Dems did absolutely nothing. They let McConnell blatantly violate the Constitution and all precedent and they shrugged and said, 'Que sera sera.' When I talk about Democratic self-sabotage, I absolutely include 2016 in the list of their list of stupid decisions. And maybe it wouldn't have changed anything. Maybe their challenges against McConnell and attempts to force him to hold hearings would have gone nowhere. But it would have gone on record that they wouldn't just roll over and ignore violations of every norm, that this shit would not be allowed to stand unimpeded. Instead, the message was sent that the GOP could do whatever they want and nobody would care.
Yes, there was election interference by Russia, obviously. There was election interference by Russia in 2020 and Trump still lost. There was massive election interference by Russia in the elections in Moldova that were held just last month, and the pro-Russia candidate lost. You can't place all the blame for this defeat on Russia. It didn't help, obviously, but if the Dems had had a popular, credible candidate, they might have won despite it. If the Dems had had two years two years to choose a candidate by the normal means, by primaries held across multiple states, a candidate that people were enthusiastic about, they might have won. As my post says, they also might not, but now we can't know.
This isn't me ranting after the fact and looking to assign blame. My tumblr posts about this shit go back years. They go back to 2016 and Mitch McConnell being the world's biggest arsehole and he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. They go back to earlier this summer when how Joe Biden should step down became a popular theme and I made multiple posts saying 'Shut the fuck up, it is too late. Biden stepping down at this point would guarantee disaster.' There wasn't time to choose a replacement, and Kamala's numbers had been way underwater since the start of their term. Trying to get anyone elected when people don't like them is a nightmare, let alone when that person is a woman of colour.
The experiment has failed. The people can't keep their republic.
And if that's true, the Dems helped it happen. All that billionaire money poured into elections was allowed because of the Citizens United ruling. A ruling passed by a rigged Supreme Court that the Dems did nothing to stop eight years ago.
Our best hope at this point lies in the fact that Trump is a lazy bum who doesn't want the job of President. He wants the power, the pomp, he wants people grovelling at his feet and jumping to give him everything he asks for and calling him Mister President; he wants to be able to do whatever the hell he feels like and not go to jail. But he doesn't want the job. We know that from his first term, and all the people who talked about how hard it was to get him to sit in an office and sign papers, the stuff that he considers boring. He doesn't want people waking him up at 3am to tell him about things happening in some other country three thousand miles away that he doesn't give a shit about. Maybe he won't do half the things he blustered about during his campaign because he just can't be bothered.
But we're guaranteed now to have a Supreme Court now that will be 7-2 if not 8-1 hardcore crazies for the next 30-40 years. And that shit will hurt badly even if Trump does nothing but fly around the world feeling self-important for the next four years. And that was something Dems like Obama and Ginsburg did nothing to stop. And Biden too, by not understanding until it was way too late that a President in his mid 80s is just inherently a bad idea. Because it is. Supreme Court justices, Presidents, Senators, they should all have an upper age limit, and if the writers of the Constitution didn't bother to impose one, common sense on the part of the supposedly smart people in charge should make them choose it for themselves.
no subject
Of course you're right that the Supreme Court hijack began with Mitch McConnell during Obama's term. But the Dems let him do it.
The Constitution of the United States says that the Senate will consider the President's pick for the Supreme Court and then vote on them. It doesn't say 'unless the Senate Majority leader decides he doesn't want to'. It doesn't says 'unless there's an election within the calendar year'. There are no provisos. It is the job of the Senate to hold hearings on the President's choice.
When McConnell refused to do the job that the Constitution required him to do, the Dems should have raised holy hell. They should have brought legal challenges. They should have said, 'If the leader of the Senate refuses to do the job that the Constitution requires him to do, then he should be replaced by someone who will do the job.' They should have fought for Merrick Garland, they should have dome everything to make sure he got a hearing.
Instead the Dems did absolutely nothing. They let McConnell blatantly violate the Constitution and all precedent and they shrugged and said, 'Que sera sera.' When I talk about Democratic self-sabotage, I absolutely include 2016 in the list of their list of stupid decisions. And maybe it wouldn't have changed anything. Maybe their challenges against McConnell and attempts to force him to hold hearings would have gone nowhere. But it would have gone on record that they wouldn't just roll over and ignore violations of every norm, that this shit would not be allowed to stand unimpeded. Instead, the message was sent that the GOP could do whatever they want and nobody would care.
Yes, there was election interference by Russia, obviously. There was election interference by Russia in 2020 and Trump still lost. There was massive election interference by Russia in the elections in Moldova that were held just last month, and the pro-Russia candidate lost. You can't place all the blame for this defeat on Russia. It didn't help, obviously, but if the Dems had had a popular, credible candidate, they might have won despite it. If the Dems had had two years two years to choose a candidate by the normal means, by primaries held across multiple states, a candidate that people were enthusiastic about, they might have won. As my post says, they also might not, but now we can't know.
This isn't me ranting after the fact and looking to assign blame. My tumblr posts about this shit go back years. They go back to 2016 and Mitch McConnell being the world's biggest arsehole and he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. They go back to earlier this summer when how Joe Biden should step down became a popular theme and I made multiple posts saying 'Shut the fuck up, it is too late. Biden stepping down at this point would guarantee disaster.' There wasn't time to choose a replacement, and Kamala's numbers had been way underwater since the start of their term. Trying to get anyone elected when people don't like them is a nightmare, let alone when that person is a woman of colour.
The experiment has failed. The people can't keep their republic.
And if that's true, the Dems helped it happen. All that billionaire money poured into elections was allowed because of the Citizens United ruling. A ruling passed by a rigged Supreme Court that the Dems did nothing to stop eight years ago.
Our best hope at this point lies in the fact that Trump is a lazy bum who doesn't want the job of President. He wants the power, the pomp, he wants people grovelling at his feet and jumping to give him everything he asks for and calling him Mister President; he wants to be able to do whatever the hell he feels like and not go to jail. But he doesn't want the job. We know that from his first term, and all the people who talked about how hard it was to get him to sit in an office and sign papers, the stuff that he considers boring. He doesn't want people waking him up at 3am to tell him about things happening in some other country three thousand miles away that he doesn't give a shit about. Maybe he won't do half the things he blustered about during his campaign because he just can't be bothered.
But we're guaranteed now to have a Supreme Court now that will be 7-2 if not 8-1 hardcore crazies for the next 30-40 years. And that shit will hurt badly even if Trump does nothing but fly around the world feeling self-important for the next four years. And that was something Dems like Obama and Ginsburg did nothing to stop. And Biden too, by not understanding until it was way too late that a President in his mid 80s is just inherently a bad idea. Because it is. Supreme Court justices, Presidents, Senators, they should all have an upper age limit, and if the writers of the Constitution didn't bother to impose one, common sense on the part of the supposedly smart people in charge should make them choose it for themselves.