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This Has Nothing to Do With Kavanaugh
I’m sorry to contribute the 100th post on Kavanaugh from the past few days, but I think we may be missing the point here. I really don’t think the Democrats expect that their last-minute surprise will keep Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court. They don’t control the Presidency or either house of Congress, so they know they’re sort of stuck here. They’re probably secretly grateful because Trump could have nominated a more conservative firebrand, and there wouldn’t have been much they can do about it. So I don’t think keeping Kavanaugh off the court is the reason they did this. I suspect it is a combination of some of the following reasons:
- This is a warning to any conservative who might consider a spot on the Supreme Court, or any other high office, in the future. This has more to do with future nominations than with Mr. Kavanaugh’s nomination.
- If the Republicans vote on this and approve him (as they should, and probably will), then every Democrat running for office in the next few elections can remind voters that “Republicans put a known rapist on the Supreme Court!!!” The only way to stop the Republican Party from expressing their hatred for women in the future is to elect more Democrats. This has more to do with future elections than with Mr. Kavanaugh’s nomination.
- The rise of the far left in their party has the old establishment Democrats understandably nervous. This is an opportunity for an extremely wealthy 85-year-old white person to polish her progressive bona fides. I refer to Sen. Feinstein, but also to most other Democrat congress-humans. This is more about those in power protecting what they have and getting re-elected than with Mr. Kavanaugh’s nomination.
- Pure desperation. Like a shot from half-court as time expires, there’s really no reason not to give it a try. It’s amazing how your options open up when unconstrained by ethics, religion, and other inconvenient truths.
- There’s really no downside to this, as far as the Democrats can see. If the other side is pure evil, then what tactic is unacceptable? How can anyone criticize any effort to combat evil? There is no downside to this – no Democrat will ever have to pay for this charade. So if there is any possible upside at all, why not do this?
My point is that this really is not about Mr. Kavanaugh – he’s just collateral damage. It’s a shame somebody had to be destroyed, but as long as he’s conservative, it’s not too much of a shame.
This really isn’t about the Supreme Court, either. This may look stupid, but it’s probably good politics. For the Democrats. Again, it’s amazing how your options open up when unconstrained by ethics, religion, and other inconvenient truths.
The catch is, the Democrats have to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it’s not just national Democrat office holders. They have to know that their supporters are also unconstrained by ethics, religion, and other inconvenient truths. So this really doesn’t tell us what Democrats think of Mr. Kavanaugh. It tells us what they think of the media, the educational establishment, and Democrat voters. And they apparently think that all those people are unethical bastards, willing to easily abandon any pretense of virtue, in an effort to demonstrate their virtue to one another.
There were a lot of conservatives who found it difficult to vote for Donald Trump because they disapproved of his ethics (or apparent lack thereof). Try to imagine what a Democrat politician would have to do to get Democrat voters to abandon him/her due to ethical concerns. The Democrats think that their lack of ethics will not create a backlash among Democrat voters, because they think that Democrat voters lack ethics as well.
I wish I thought the Democrat party was miscalculating on that point. But I don’t. What a horrible thought.
So this this may look stupid. But it’s probably good politics.
What say you? Please tell me I’m way off base here…
Published in General
Yes, we have 31 years of observable history since Democrats made Bork into a verb. Not once. Not a single time. There is no instance of Republicans engaging in the politics of personal destruction to block or bloody a Democrat judicial nominee.
And that is why we are where we are today. Without mutually assured destruction, there is no deterrent.
Too many (R)s think mutually assured destruction is insufficiently
lucrativecollegial.If you think the republic is heading full speed for a cliff, the Dems want to keep the pedal to the metal and most Republicans want to stop for a tuneup to make sure the car is running efficiently.
Both parties in the Senate have a problem, when the two senior members of the Committee on the Judiciary are 85 years old. It showed in the hearings, as Chairman Grassley was overwhelmed by much younger Democrats. The parties simply ought not endorse any candidate whose statistical life expectancy is less than the term to which they aspire, or cling.
I stand by the post. We will know soon enough whether my prognostication is wildly optimistic or not.
I also like to predict differently than @garyrobbins. It is a proven winner.
As is well known around here, I love to be proven wrong. At least in this case I would.
An older post, but appropriate here. This is how you change a noncooperative, hostile opponent, into a cooperative, helpful ally.
I knew an SDS guy in 1968. Very scary people, most of them.
Those of us on the Left coast are receiving the Californication first hand. Wearing a Mexican flag is wonderful and to be celebrated while wearing an American flag is hateful and to be punished or suppressed. We are legislating things that don’t exist in the real world — economic prosperity based on non-nuclear/non-fossil energy, controlling climate change, controlling straws. We think we are exempt from the forces of supply and demand — that controlling rents and raising minimum wages will result in more housing and more jobs. We believe that if we just don’t provide water to agriculture (while filling the swimming pools of the swells along the coast) food will continue to be magically produced. We think that spending a gazillion dollars to build a high speed train between Bakersfield and Modesto will somehow make it possible to spend a gazillion more in 30 years to bring high speed rail to downtown LA and downtown San Jose. We think that making every awkward move by a teen boy on a girl a felony will “empower” everyone. Thank goodness we are importing our future population (who will ignore #metoo) because our current one is unlikely to be in a position to reproduce.
In short, we are nuts and we want everyone to be nuts, too!
Remember not to comment on old posts at AOSHQ, or the system will ban you.
“Susan,” as we locals refer to her, is from The County (Aroostook), in extreme northeastern Maine. Folks up there are pretty salt-of-the-earth rock-solid as they come, mostly Franco-American. I suspect the heavy-handed tactics didn’t sit well with her. Also, she makes it a point to get around the state and speak to her constituents, but she generally avoids confrontational situations. I happened to speak to her at a priest friend’s 30 anniversary ordination party. It was just prior to Kavanaugh being named, but I urged her to support the nominee, whoever it was.
DiFi keeps reminding me of Mrs. Charlesworth of Green, Charlesworth in Fred Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth’s classic Gladiator-at-Law.
Thanks for the info!
Taking a step back and considering the OP: yes, and.
And it is about the fundamental transformation of America along the correct arc of history. The third branch of government is understood to be the supreme branch, the one most capable of imposing correct thinking and correct outcomes, without reversal or messy compromise. And yet, we are still in a moment when the people being corrected could push back. That was the 2016 election.
So here we stand, at a pivotal moment. The last seat did not have any impact on the direction of the court. This seat fundamentally threatens the left’s project. Hence, the Bork, Thomas, Estrada, Kavanaugh playbook.
There should have been no surprise at personally destructive surprises. As Coach Dennis Green said “they are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook.” We shall see if “off the hook” means Kavanaugh’s defeat or just letting the Democrats get away without sanction. What we know is that the Senate Republicans set themselves, and the American people, up with that pasty panel of dudes. And they had no rehearsal and no game plan to rehearse. They still have not taken Senator Snow’s wise counsel.
I just cannot believe these were real pages in a real yearbook.
My HS yearbook cover was a silhouette photo of a guy smoking a doobie.
Wow, really? Maybe I was sheltered, but my private school would not have had this stuff in it.
public school, 1970
They have realized that Anthony “Swing Time” Kennedy was the only thing propping up their progressive dreams. Can you imagine what they’d do if RBG had a massive stroke?
No.
From The Gun Free Zone
No Republican could ever run again: That’s the Democrat end point.
One notes that neither of these gentlemen is still in Congress. So they don’t matter. You might have mentioned Scoop Jackson and JFK while you were at it.
Not if. When.
She’s 80-something and at risk of recurrences of two cancers. She’s enfeebled. Trump has a very good chance of replacing her, too.
Dr Bastiat is right, this charade is as much about the next vacancy as this one.
Yes, and, on the things that matter most to the left, Kennedy was a standard bearer. So, this does fundamentally change the court, now.
http://ricochet.com/554798/yes-and-kavanaugh-from-knife-fight-to-cold-war/
The lack of ethics by the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee is deplorable and execrable, from Spartacus, and the deceitful DiFi to the horrible woman from Hawaii who has told all men to shut up.
I just wish that we hadn’t nominated a Birther-womanizer. That way it would have so much easier to sweep away these last minute allegations against a truly remarkable jurist.
But how would we even know?
This is not the time, Gary.
I presume that the bolded line above is a reference to President Trump.
As is highlighted in the terrific title of this OP … this has nothing to do with Judge Kavanaugh … or President Trump.
The democrat party, and its every Senate member, have lost their collective (pun intended) minds. They would do this to any SCOTUS nominee … regardless of who is sitting in the Oval Office.
Since the press covers for them, they think they can get away with such deplorable and execrable actions.
I think it will backfire greatly on them. Let’s make that happen by turning out to vote against every democrat everywhere this November. Send them a direct message that the people of this country are tired of their disgusting and damnable actions and rhetoric.
All good Democrats — even “Arizona Democrats” — should send a message this fall and vote straight-ticket Republican. We need to keep the Democratic Party in check!