More Than Roe… — Truth, Lies & Politics
Many will tell you that nominating a new Justice for the Supreme Court is just about filling one seat, that’s all. No big deal, right? What’s the fuss?
Either they have no idea what they are talking about, they are deliberately distorting the situation, or they are lying. This is not about ‘one seat’. This the culmination of a near 50-year campaign to turn the court, to finish the politicization, (or the ‘right-ization’) begun under Reagan. Some say it started earlier, under Nixon. The court right now sits as one of the most far-right courts in history, at an ideological 5–4 split, with Chief Justice John Roberts a sometime swing vote. That is/was until the death of RBG. That now all changes with a Trump appointee.
The right has insisted on basically one test for their increasingly far-right judges, ‘will you kill Roe v Wade?’, so the center-to-left has to play that game and ask them ‘will you overturn Roe v Wade?’, and that has been the test to get on the court since the 80s. From both sides.
So, here we are. With the death of Justice Ginsberg, and before her admirers are even allowed to morn, we have the Trump and McConnell GOP rushing at full speed to shove someone, anyone as far right as they can, into that seat, NOW. No idea if McConnell will even allow the whole kabuki dance of hearings or not. I’d be somewhat surprised if he did, but I assume they’ll have to do something to sell whatever nominee they choose to a public that is now more divided than ever. Even if it means destroying the legitimacy of the Court, something they really don’t care about anyway (that took a big hit with the stealing of a seat from Obama).
But this is much more than just Roe v Wade, for Republicans and Democrats, this is about the changing demographics and the shifting society. The Republicans know that their time is limited by the fact that America is becoming less White, less Christian, over all less religious, and less rural. This is the GOP’s base, the ones they have relied on for decades, and they are becoming a minority. Instead of trying to expand that base, as their own research showed they needed to do (the famous ‘autopsy’ in 2013) they instead decided to keep people out. They turned their back on anyone not White, not Christian, and doubled down on what was left.
The GOP gave up on outreach, and instead went with fear, went with hate, and since they could not grow their base, they made sure anyone not part of it wasn’t allowed to vote, to thrive, to grow.
But to achieve this, they needed the courts.
Every year, the number of people voting for the GOP declines, it’s a fact. So you gerrymander, you put restrictions on voting; who can vote, where they can vote, how they can vote. Now, for the most part, judges don’t like these kinds of tactics, and the Voting Rights Act was often cited. In fact, the VRA was passed specifically to stop those sorts of tactics. So, you get Justices who will kill the enforcement part of the VRA, you get far-right judges appointed who will agree with your ‘these people shouldn’t vote’ philosophy, you couch it in enough legalese, or hide your true motives just enough to give cover to their rulings.
The GOP has giving up governing, given up legislating, (what great bill has McConnell passed? What grand compromise has he made?) given up caring about anything but getting massive amounts of far-right judges appointed. Compromise, and learning to work with the other side is difficult, it’s a lot of work and you probably won’t get the result you wanted, so just get the courts. They know they’ll soon not be able to win national elections (they’ve recently had two presidents who’ve served without winning the popular vote) and might be soon reduced to a regional party. But if they can appoint enough judges, that won’t matter. If they can’t get national electoral power, they’ll rule though the courts. Long after the country has changed, long after the White majority is no longer the majority, the GOP can hold power over a country that has rejected their ideals by capturing, and keeping, the courts.
More than Roe, that is what this is about.
This is why the Democrats will need to appoint more Justices. They will never be anything slightly left of center upheld by the conservative SCOTUS, never. And a conservative court will then start on killing the entire Civil Rights Era. It’s been on the GOP list for years, and they’ve been itching to do it. Anything that might smell of progress will be slapped down, if it even gets past the GOP/Trump circuit and appeals courts. 2–4 new seats will restore balance. The Democrats will also need to expand the number of Federal judges as well, (they could use it) to rebalance a system that has been purposely skewed, to ensure justice.
And that’s what this needs to be about, justice.
None of this will be easy, but if McConnell pushes this through, it will not only be needed, it will be necessary.
Originally published at https://www.tomtalkspolitics.com on September 21, 2020.