...on this and other The Senate Is Weighted Against Us threads, I wonder if they're fully grasping how far beyond Senate business-as-usual the situation has actually gotten. Speaking here of the Senate's role as gatekeeper to the Supreme Court.
The Senate is able to TOTALLY barricade entry onto that Bench. And I fear this McConnell Senate, today in the process of trashing the Constitution yet again, has become willing to do so for not just for Merrick Garland but for ALL Democratic SCOTUS appointees.
If in November we do beat the Orange Menace in the vote again (I regard that as a given) AND this time the EC as well (which is the question), BUT fall short of winning the Senate, do you think Mitch McConnell is going to allow the new Democratic president to fill any seats that come vacant on SCOTUS?
I'm sad to say that I don't.
In 2016 Senate Republicans were talking about freezing out all Hillary Clinton SCOTUS appointees -- Merrick Garland-ing them -- for not just 1 year but for 4. Based on everything we have seen and presently are seeing from the Republicans in this Senate, I do believe they'll do that. For all of 2021-2022 if they hold the Senate then. And again 2023-2024 if they hold it again.
I strongly suspect the world of SCOTUS politics pernanently changed in 2016... to, call it McConnellism. And that America will never again see a Democratic president's appointee to the Supreme Court receive an up-or-down confirmation vote in a Republican-controlled Senate. They'll just let the Court operate with fewer justices until such time that they hold both the presidency and Senate again. However many years that takes.
If I'm correct about this, then the repercussions from the Senate being structurally so slanted in favor of Republican control have escalated dramatically. Beyond even what we've seen so far. Beyond even its refusal in the past week to do another of its Constitutional duties, to hold a scoff-law president accountable.
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