In the coming weeks, a few Republicans will object to filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat before the election. Quite a few Democrats will attempt to burn down the country over Trump’s forthcoming nominee:
So why will some Republicans in the United States Senate (the approval of which is needed to confirm presidential judicial nominees) foolishly side with Reza?
- Bullying: Naturally, Twitter has yet to suspend Reza (a liberal media celebrity known for his work with CNN and HBO) from their platform, despite the above “literal” threats of violence (his word, not mine). Twitter has repeatedly censored the account of the President of the United States (despite zero terroristic threats). Under no circumstances, however, should mob violence cause Republicans to cower. We won the U.S. Presidency and Senate, and our elected officials have the right to carry out their duties, free from violence.
Or as Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said regarding President Obama’s Court nominee: “The president is elected for four years, not three years, so the power he has in year three continues into year four…and maybe our members of the Senate will wake up and appreciate that that’s how it should be.”
- Ginsburg’s Request: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish: Not to have Donald Trump choose replacement.” – NBC Headline. Within hours of Ginsburg’s death, a story emerged that Ginsburg’s last wish was not to be replaced by Trump. There’s no proof Ginsburg said anything of the kind, and it would be sad if she wasted her last breath on politics. So naturally, dozens of liberal media outlets, filled with respect for Ginsburg, immediately reported the story (NBC, MSN, Yahoo News, USA Today, Slate, the Daily Mail, etc.).
Assuming Ginsburg wanted to be replaced by a Democrat, she could have easily accomplished that goal. In 2014 the President was a Democrat, Democrats held the Senate, and Ginsburg was an eighty-one-year-old who had twice survived cancer. She could have retired, let President Obama choose her replacement, and enjoyed more time with her two children and four grandchildren. That she may have gambled that Hillary Clinton would be elected shouldn’t cause Republicans to act as if Hillary was elected, thus thwarting the will of voters.
- Republicans Blocked Obama’s Nominee: Senate Republican Susan Collins has already said that she won’t vote to confirm a nominee until after the election, because Republicans refused to confirm Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland before the 2016 election, and “fair is fair.” Oh please!
First, Collins has no reason to have a guilty conscience, because she wanted to go ahead and confirm Garland in 2016. Thank goodness she didn’t get her way, or Trump couldn’t have nominated Neil Gorsuch.
Second, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was also in charge of the Senate in 2016, didn’t stop Garland because he believed election years were sacred. McConnell wrote in the Washington Post at the time:
“No one disputes the president’s authority to nominate a successor to Scalia, but as inconvenient as it may be for this president, Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution grants the Senate the power to provide, or as the case may be, withhold its consent… We also know that Americans issued a stinging rebuke to this president and his policies in our latest national election, delivering a landslide for the opposition party as they handed control of the Senate to Republicans in 2014.”
Yes, McConnell also mentioned that it was an election year. But his point could be summed up as “Voters put us in charge. You need our consent. Your nominee stinks, so you’re not getting it unless voters turn the tables on us.”
In 2020, Republicans control the Senate, because that’s what voters decided. They also control the White House. If Democrats don’t like it, they should try harder in the next election.
To my fellow Republicans – the ones who aren’t falling for the election year charade – we can’t lose the chance to put another constitutional originalist on the Court. So please write to and call your senator. If Collins and her fellow Republican “moderate” Lisa Murkowski both defect on this, as they have said they will do, we can only afford to lose one more Republican vote.
