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And Now, the Amazing Story of "Shmevolution"

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Belafon7/09/2018 5:56:41 am PDT

re: #76 Joe Bacon 🌹

I thought this opinion from the NYT had some good points:

Step one: Be realistic.

Trump’s nominee is overwhelmingly likely to be confirmed regardless of what actions Democrats take. Republicans hold the Senate majority, and every Republican senator — yes, including Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski — has a history of voting for judges like those Trump is considering. Collins and Murkowski have a script: They make centrist-sounding statements, to shore up their images, and then vote aye.

So Democrats should go into the confirmation debate recognizing that it is almost certainly unwinnable. It will not depend on how hard Democratic leaders fight or which tactics they choose, alluring as that fantasy may be. In these polarized times, court nominations unite political parties, even more than individual issues, like, say, health care.

…

Step two: Don’t lose hope.

The Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol has spent decades studying political power and change, from the Civil War to the Tea Party and anti-Trump resistance. She believes that Kennedy’s retirement can be a clarifying moment for American liberals.

Over the last half-century, conservatives have put more energy into building a movement — creating ideological institutions, grooming judges and, perhaps above all, winning local, state and congressional elections. Democrats have emphasized higher-profile politics, like the presidency and landmark court cases. Democrats can’t afford to do so anymore.

For years to come, the Supreme Court is likely to have a very conservative majority. But remember that the modern conservative movement began when the court seemed implacably liberal, under Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1950s and ’60s. “Conservatives were facing a Washington complex that horrified them,” Skocpol told me, “so they built from the bottom up.”