David Corn: To Honor Ginsburg, Democrats Have One Choice: Go Nuclear

[JHB]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-democrats-whats-next-mcconnell-trump/

It’s a popular sentiment on the left: Don’t mourn, organize. But with the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that won’t be enough. Ginsburg, a hero of female empowerment and of the Supreme Court, deserves much mourning. But Democrats and progressives can waste no time prepping for the battle royal that lies ahead. After all, it took Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell mere minutes after the news of RBG’s passing to declare that the GOP-controlled Senate will vote on whoever Donald Trump sends its way to fill the Supreme Court vacancy—a direct eff-you to the Democrats after McConnell in 2016 refused to consider President Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland with the phony-baloney argument that the Senate should not consider new justices during an election year. So yes, Dems will have to organize, but they must do more: They have to get ready to rumble.

What is coming, at least as the Republicans see it, is a grand political clash. They have been hellbent on reshaping the entire federal judiciary and especially drool over the prospect of locking the highest court into a right-wing course that will last decades and counter demographic trends that favor Democrats. This is their Holy Grail. After all, nothing galvanizes conservative evangelical voters more than the courts. For political consultants, it has long been conventional wisdom that right-wingers obsess over the composition of the courts and the Supreme Court far more than progressives. So Ginsburg’s departure is a gift for Trump. If there has been any erosion occurring on the edges of his conservative and evangelical base, his effort to shove another anti-choice, pro-corporate conservative on to the highest court could certainly shore up that ground for him. Here’s something Trump can campaign on for the next six and a half weeks, without breaking a sweat or fielding a tough question. It’s his lifeline. A cure for his coronavirus problem.

***

The win-over-reasonable-Republicans-with-reason strategy is weak sauce. That leaves the Democrats with one other choice: total political warfare. The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer—with the backing of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi—needs to threaten massive retaliation. Should McConnell try to ram a Trump nominee through, Schumer ought to vow that the Democrats, if they win back the Senate and Biden is elected president, will demolish the filibuster, which will allow the Senate to proceed to make Washington, DC, a state (two more senators, who are likely to be Democrats!) and that they will move to add two or four more seats to the Supreme Court. (There is nothing in the Constitution that limits the court’s size to the current nine justices.) In other words: They will implement a Republican nightmare (which, as it happens, can be justified on arguments of equity and fairness).

Schumer should utter this declaration publicly to lock the Democrats in. Of course, this could further propel Republicans to the polls. But it might do the same with Democrats. (The stakes in this election are now higher than they already were.) Crucially, there would need to be buy-in from Biden. The veteran Washington player will have to put aside his somewhat admirable (if misguided) desire to return to the older and more genteel means of legislating and compromising in the nation’s capital. But with conservative voters fired up by the dream of replacing Ginsburg with a thirtysomething right-wing firebrand, the Dems will have to counter with more than a this-isn’t-fair argument. Bring a gun to a knife fight? They will need a bazooka. Sorry if that sounds violent. But, as one sage person likes to say, we are in a fight for the nation’s soul. And sometimes you don’t get to choose the weapons or levels of intensity.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Absolutely!

[Wounded Bear]

2. K & R...nt

[Doreen]

3. I second that.

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. Yes

Playing nice has gotten us nowhere.

[Thekaspervote]

5. I believe Biden has said he would not be against it. He knows how much work we have to do

And maybe just 2 years to do it.

[mr_lebowski]

6. Now we're talking ... I love it!

DC AND Puerto Rico!!!

[qazplm135]

7. ok David Corn, but that means to make that happen

Dems have to win, and for that to happen, everyone has to vote Dem.
That includes the folks who ordinarily vote Green or sit at home and lament that both parties suck.

[Beakybird]

8. I disagree. Here's why.

The Rethugs might not get their shit-ass judge, and I think Biden should pack the court and get rid of the filibuster regardless - not tie himself to some agreement.

[rso]

11. RBG

Agree 100 percent. We need to go nuclear whether a new Justice is confirmed or not.

[Vivienne235729]

9. I absolutely agree. TIME. TO. GO. NUCLEAR.

[BootinUp]

10. good ideas in there. and this is fuckin war.

[dalton99a]

12. Kick

[Poiuyt]

13. Amen to that

Republicans always look at politics as a life and death struggle. It's time for Democrats to take off their gloves and fight to win.

[Hekate]

14. Sounds like a plan

[ProudMNDemocrat]

15. I say go for it. Bring out the BIG guns...

And get to work.

[gopiscrap]

16. I think we should do both

come to the agreement and then break when Biden wins and the Senate goes Democratic be as dirty and shitty as the repukes you see where playing fair has got us...

[BadgerMom]

17. K and R

Concur!

[standingtall]

18. We should add more than DC and Puerto Rico

but need to push to make every inhabited U.S. territory a State. When don't need to just add to 2 to 4 Supreme Court seats, but at least 6 or more. Republicans are most likely going to ram through an appointment of a right wing judge just two months before the election and we need to be prepared to make them live to regret it.

[Maraya1969]

19. I never thought of that. We could change that face of this country's political system with that!

[Volaris]

24. If you really want to start adding states, why not just make standing offers of Union membership

To all of central america?

Not that theres a great history there, but let's say everything south to Panama decides to take their shot at the American Dream...the result would be FUCK YOUR BORDER, AND its Dumb Stupid Wall.

Republicans head would explode for a hundred years.

[standingtall]

27. That would be pouching sovereign territories of other countries

Let's stick to what we can do for now by adding States that are already U.S. territories. That other stuff could possibly be done, but that would most likely take generations to accomplish.

[Volaris]

29. Every State in the Union is already sovereign in it's own right.

Make the offer. See what The People in those places want done.
If they say no thanks, no harm no foul.

[standingtall]

30. I think she should get the territories we have to be States first

before taking a step to other territories around the world to join us.

[Volaris]

31. That's a fair point, and I'll pipe down now )

[SunSeeker]

28. Exactly. Go big or go home. No taxation without representation!!

[Upthevibe]

21. JHB...Thanks for the post-David Corn-Go Nuclear..n/t

[paul91046]

22. and don't forget

to make Puerto Rico a state while you're at it. But democratic history tells us they'll just play by the rules while the traitor party holds power illegally and says "what the fuck you gonna do about it." grow a pair democrats.

[Volaris]

25. I really really hope chuck is up to this fight this time...

[onetexan]

23. K&R - Dems need to bring bazooka to this fight. Stakes are now much higher!!

Nancy/Chuck, listen to David Corn. Threaten Moscow Mitch with going nuclear.

Alright, Corn did mention Dems can increase the # justices on the SCOTUS once Biden wins. There's our answer so all hope is not lost.

[SunSeeker]

26. YES! It is a matter of survival for our democracy, for our planet. It truly is.

[smirkymonkey]

32. K&R

[MFM008]

33. its time to go

Roger Stone and Steve Bannon Low.
It is.
PASSED time.
Time to put on the hurt.

[JHB]

34. No, it's not like that, not like them.

They just want to watch the world burn.

We're ripping out rotten wood so we can repair the foundation.

[panfluteman]

35. Why Not Just Walk Out On the Confirmation Hearings and Deny the Republicans a Quorum???

[mwooldri]

36. Perhaps remodel the Supreme Court aka European Court of Justice?

One judge for every state, or maybe every two states? Cases wouldn't be heard by all the judges - by panels of judges instead.

Or maybe model after number of regional judicial circuits - one Supreme judge per circuit plus a Chief Justice to oversee all 12... 13 in total.

AFAIK this could be done legislatively and in the name of streamlining the justice system and delivering swifter justice (pointing out the logjams made by the Republicans in the Obama era as evidence to do this). And the Republicans should agree to this since they are the law and order party and would want to see swift justice, no?