This Supreme Court Disaster Didn't Have To Happen

[DonViejo]

Joe Conason

June 27, 2018 10:40 pm

What once may have sounded like a distant and wonkish abstraction — namely, the nature of future nominees to the United States Supreme Court — is now upon us as a rapidly worsening catastrophe.

Within the past few days, owing to the seat stolen by Senate Republicans for Neil Gorsuch in 2017, the high court has upheld Donald Trump’s discriminatory travel ban, enabled the deception of desperate women by anti-choice “counseling clinics,” and inflicted a stunning blow from which the American labor movement may never recover.

And yesterday Justice Anthony Kennedy sent a letter to the White House announcing his plan to retire from the court on July 31, which will deliver another seat to a Trump appointee. What that might portend for civil liberties, human rights, consumer protection, industrial regulation, and decent government is difficult to contemplate. But suddenly the most outlandish dreams of the far right are much closer to being realized.

Despite his reputation as a “moderate,” Kennedy was in truth a very bad, mostly right-wing judge and a dim intellect, as his notoriously senseless Citizens United opinion proved. His record on the court was so bad, observes the astute judicial analyst Ian Millhiser, that even a Trump justice may not do much worse. Those who believed that Kennedy wouldn’t surrender his seat to this dangerous executive overestimated his character.

The endless reign of injustice that stretches before us is hardly what most Americans want or deserve, at least as measured by the 2016 election results. If that presidential election was “a referendum on the future of the court and thus the country,” as Trumpist pundit Hugh Hewitt crowed in The Washington Post, the Republicans lost by more than three million votes. And yet they won control of the high court and much of the judiciary for perhaps a generation to come.

As you imagine a nation without reproductive rights, voting protections, or environmental laws, are you looking for somebody to thank? It isn’t hard to compose a list of those responsible for the present disaster, from the ruin of the Supreme Court to the torment of children on our borders and a thousand other disasters large and small. Such a list could include Hillary Clinton herself and her clueless campaign staff. But at least the Democratic nominee tried to warn us about the consequences of electing Trump, including his potential perversion of the courts.

Even more culpable than Clinton, perhaps, is anyone who told voters that she didn’t deserve their support; anyone who complained that she was the same as Donald Trump or even worse; anyone who bloviated that Democrats are no different from Republicans; anyone who urged a ballot for Jill Stein as a way to advance progressive politics and achieve moral hygiene; and anyone who said that electing Trump might even “bring on the revolution.” Trump’s tiny, almost accidental margin in the Electoral College can be directly attributed to voters who acted out their “protest.”

It is now clear that we will endure the consequences of their stupidity for a long time, as will our children. We ought to have known better after the 2000 election, when a few handfuls of ‘protest’ ballots (and a crooked Supreme Court majority) smoothed the disastrous Electoral College victory of George W. Bush. Will we learn the lesson this time?

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http://www.nationalmemo.com/supreme-court-disaster-happen/

Full article posted with the permission of the author -- Don

[yallerdawg]

1. 5-4 ruling on Bush v. Gore.

Can you guess who the swing vote was?

[geardaddy]

22. I also heard that the Bush campaign enlisted him to bring the case to the court.

[roscoeroscoe]

2. Right on, Joe

Well said. We've got to get together and hang tough. Let's meet and talk it over at the Red Hen!

[appal_jack]

3. The Democratic Party should have learned lessons of 2000

I have no qualm with noting that the Stein votes and post-Primary anti-Hillary rhetoric contributed to this awful state we are now in as a nation, rather like the "they're all the same" rhetoric and Nader votes contributed to the awful post-2000 reality. This is 100% true.

But the other parallels between 2000 and 2016 are equally disturbing. The Democratic Party put forth a wooden and out of touch candidate who ignored all calls from the left flank to engage with the voters, whether through VP selection, creative use of surrogates, specific campaign promises, or other ways to genuinely get out the votes in sufficient quantity. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both are intelligent and dedicated politicians who failed to rouse enough voters. In both 2000 and 2016, this strategy did not work out too well. We need to own that. Might Gore or HRC have done better with a truly progressive VP candidate, sharing the spotlight with some fiery surrogates (whether VP or otherwise), and/or promising a few pie-in-the-sky progressive visions? I wish we could run the experiment again a few times to find out, and then live in the world where it works out better.

And yes, in both 2000 and 2016 a slim majority voted for the Democratic candidate. But a slim majority did not cut it in either case.

-app

[vi5]

24. Great post...

..I'm sure there are a lot who will be around any minute now to chastise you and argue with you about how the party did nothing wrong in either case (2000 or 2016) but you are 100% correct. All it would have taken is a few more bold and brave decisions rather than fixating on caution, safety, and loyalty and things could have turned out completely different.

[mythology]

26. I would argue at least Clinton wasn't wooden

She often came across as such in front of large crowds, but in smaller groups she was much better. I can relate as I'm the same way. When I have a large audience I have the personality of a tree stump. But one on one I'm very different. Gore didn't find his voice until he took up climate change.

Unfortunately our system currently rewards being gregarious and a show person. It worked out well with Obama and Bill Clinton, but not so well with Reagan, Bush II and Trump.

And as for the VP choice mattering, Bill Clinton won with the wooden Al Gore.

[Tatiana]

29. Outstanding comment... but I have a minor quibble.

Hillary wasn't really out of touch, but as Conason indicates -- her staff was. Her staff was completely out of their league. It would have been better if we had just transferred the entire OFA team over to run the campaign. Hillary was loyal (to Huma and others) and we are suffering the consequences. Hillary knew the lay of the land -- she understood what we were up against, but trusted the people who were so-called experienced in the political realm to get the job done and make the correct decisions.

I said at the time Kaine was a bad choice for VP and I stand by that comment. With all of Hillary's negatives and the drop in Democratic enthusiasm, we needed a candidate that would excite the base and force people to come out. Kaine added nothing to the ticket and reinforced the false narrative of Clinton as an "establishment" candidate.

This is why I tend to lean towards Kennedy III as part of the next Democratic presidential ticket. He has that spark that will motivate disengaged people to vote.

[Moostache]

4. We are probably a year or less away from a 7-2 court...

It was game over a long, long time ago....like November 2016.

If you read this and you did not vote in WI, MI or PA or worse yet voted for a boutique protest candidate out of spite, FUCK YOU, you are the architects of this catastrophe.

IT IS YOUR FAULT, hope you're happy...

[DownriverDem]

5. How about the voters?

I blame the voters. They are the ones that have put us where we are. I watched in horror election after election as the country moved right. BTW I voted in Michigan.

[rpannier]

13. Throw in the idiots who couldn't be bothered to vote

I'm amazed at the numbers of idiots that stay home because they don't think it matters
It would be nice when a disaster strikes if only the idiots who helped, or who did nothing to prevent it, were the only ones who were washed away by the water

[ginnyinWI]

18. And don't forget Putin's thumb was on the scale. n/t

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

25. THE FIRST

reply should always be PUTINS interference. THAT was the key. I abhor repubs and "people who didn't vote" but, everyone I know...voted for the historic first female president. It's counter-productive to beat up on Democrats when the repubs are front and center CLEARLY the problem.
Dems out voted them by millions of votes and the Electoral College Delegates had time to be approached w big checks to vote repub.
If you MUST get angry....start w the repubs. Clearly the Dems are already feeling bad bc we elected Hillary for president.

[Mariana]

16. No, no, it's the people who didn't vote for Trump who are to blame.

Those tens of millions who did vote for him? They aren't responsible in any way, you see.

[QC]

19. +1

[oberliner]

6. We are looking at 40+ years of a hard right-wing Supreme Court

I wish there had been a greater sense of urgency in 2016.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. We Sort Of Did

But the urgency appeared to be greatest among the "both sides", "but her emails" and "burn it down" crowd.

So, they urgently either did nothing or the wrong thing.

[CrispyQ]

27. I blame Trump voters. All 63 million of them.

The character of this man was there for all to see, even if the media didn't report on it. If one took 5 minutes & Googeled "donald trump's bankruptcies" they would have learned that he isn't a great businessman & that he doesn't pay his contractors & that he uses undocumented workers on his projects. And that's just the surface.

Mean-spirited white people, afraid for their future & looking for someone to tell them it's okay to blame & hate on the brown people - that's what got us Trump. Fuck 'em every goddamned one. And especially those in my family.

~insert flip-the-bird smilie here x 100

[Firestorm49]

7. Right to the point.

If anybody thinks that McConnell and Company is going to abide by the rule that they themselves established to stall and withhold confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice, you have another guess coming. As we’ve witnessed countless times, Republicans will do whatever they can to get away with whatever they can, regardless of how much egg is on their faces. Only until a public uprising occurs will they back down. As I have stayed so many times before, they are now and always have been a slippery party. Why? Because they know that so much of their agenda never helps the Americans who have been stupid enough to elect them, and more importantly, too fat, dumb, and happy to stand up and resist.

So, the upcoming months will create another distasteful distraction to avert from the reality of their true intent to turn America into a fascist state. We see it every day in plain view, but oh well! The Republican House and Senate’s silent complicity is based on more information than we will be allowed to digest, and quite frankly, they are doing their job well. Treasonous, but done with nothing but true disdain for the voter and the Constitution of the United States of America.

God bless those who are smart enough to resist. By the way, nice job, DonViejo.

[world wide wally]

8. Time for Mueller to bring charges?

Replacing a SC judge in the middle of a trial would be unprecedented and raise the profile even more.

[bucolic_frolic]

23. Indictments, collusion, and espionage

are more than equivalent to McConnell's not moving on Merrick Garland.

It's not a witch hunt at this point. It's a search for domestic spies in the service of a foreign government.

[Honeycombe8]

9. I agree. And I'll add...there should have been a stronger fight in 2016 in Senate....

against twisting the rules not to allow a vote on Obama's nominee. There should have been a knock down drag out fight on that. Even a lawsuit. It would have been in vain, perhaps, but we'll never know.

These are not nice times. Our Democratic leaders have can no longer be so nice, IMO.

[Historic NY]

10. How about the people who work every day and who's every breath is to trash the Democratic Party....

the pretend Democrats. They will be proud to see the roll back of civil rights gains, if you think the cake decision was bad, just wait.

[louis c]

11. Sounds familiar

I think I posted the same sentiments yesterday on DU

[BSdetect]

12. The usa has become a mirror image of some classic corrupt small town.

Where the local magnate runs the court, the police, the businesses, the trade, the media and the elections.

Corruption flourishes.

[Gothmog]

15. American without Roe

Link to tweet

[olegramps]

17. Smercornish is in that camp. I despise the bastard.

He played the role of the prefect spoiler by declaring he was an Independent and trashed Clinton assuring the election of Trump. He is a lifetime filthy Republican scumbag cut out of the same rotten material as Lee Atwater and his cadre of imitators.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. We need

to form a protective circle around Ginsburg and Breyer for the next two years! Protective spells, enchantments, whatever we can do to keep them on the bench!

[Texin]

21. "Will we learn the lesson this time?"

Tragically, it's a "lesson" most of us probably won't survive. It's a "lesson" our country won't survive, or at least our representative democracy won't survive. We will have to immediately look back to the Gilded Age to review the country as it was then and what it represented to the average working class people - including their young children who also toiled in factories and coal mines without regulations of any kind - who struggled to eke out an existence and for daily survival.

We are doomed. It won't happen overnight, but it will be a death of thousands and thousands of tiny cuts, bit by bit, every day, around every corner. There will be nothing remaining of any significance or any dignity for millions and millions of us evermore.

[Progressive dog]

28. That is not very persuasive to me

The supposed culpability of Clinton and the prediction that Trump's appointee might be not much worse than Kennedy, is an insult to the intelligence of Democrats.
Clinton was the victim of a Russian war on democracy with lots of help from some within our country. Trump and his GOP allies are already gloating over being able to replace Kennedy.
Kennedy's retirement was expected, so this was never a "wonkish abstraction" to anyone who watched the GOP steal a seat on SCOTUS for Gorsuch.