I saw a clip from an interview with Mitch McConnell on Fox news discussing the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. In 2016, McConnell enraged Democrats by citing the upcoming election as a reason for refusing to even engage former President Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland in a conversation. Yet here he was, practically chortling in anticipation of ramming the conservative nominee down our collective throats while we are actually voting.
He wasn’t the only gleeful Republican. Alleged “Never Trumper” George Conway (husband of former White House senior staffer, Kellyanne and father of would-be-emancipated teen TikToker, Claudia), couldn’t stop himself from posting the qualifications of the nominee on Twitter.
As a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, a Super PAC created by disaffected Republican strategists and using tactics described (by John Heilman of Showtime’s “The Circus”) as “amoral” to remove the 45th Resident from the White House, Conway’s comments generated some backlash on social media. Fans and followers of The Lincoln Project expressed their feelings of betrayal, accused Conway of being a hypocrite at best and a con at worst, and seemed to forget that Conway is after all, a Republican.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans, in particular the evangelical, religious right segment, has been on full display since they hitched their hopes to someone who is a walking, talking contradiction to what they claim to believe. But apparently, their willingness to “swallow some of their principles” was in support of achieving their long-term judicial vision by any means necessary.
And they seem to have succeeded.
President Trump “has appointed more federal appeals court judges to date than any recent president at the same point in their presidency.” Many of these judges were chosen less for their qualifications or experience and more for their demonstrated allegiance to the Party’s political goals. Just this week, three Trump appointed judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempt to suppress the vote by shutting down dozens of mail ballot drop-off sites.
Barring any unforeseen defections, the Republicans will capture the crowning achievement of their judicial agenda with the confirmation of Judge Barrett which will probably happen right before the conclusion of the U.S. election on November 3.
The focus on abortion rights helped coalesce the party but their crusade was never about abortion rights. The judicial activism by the Republican party since the 1970s has always been about maintaining the status quo, imposing their conservative values on American politics and reversing or preventing policies that increasingly sought to serve ALL Americans.
Expect the Republicans to challenge every hard-won legislative victory by a marginalized voting bloc, every regulation protecting regular Americans…even how elections are conducted.
Don’t give them the opportunity to challenge THIS election.
Vote.